FMBN decries lack of data bank for housing sector

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has expressed concern over lack of reliable data base in the real estate sector and has therefore called for the harmonisation of various means of data collation in the country. This was disclosed by the Managing Director/Chief Executive, FMBN, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, at the Stakeholders Conference on the […]

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has expressed concern over lack of reliable data base in the real estate sector and has therefore called for the harmonisation of various means of data collation in the country.

This was disclosed by the Managing Director/Chief Executive, FMBN, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, at the Stakeholders Conference on the National Real Estate Data Collation and Management Programme (NRE-DCMP) held recently in Abuja.

Dangiwa, who was represented by the Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Services in the bank, Mr. Melville Ebo, pledged to support the Real Estate Data Collation and Management Programme championed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria (REDAN).

Speaking on the efforts of FMBN at diversifying its sources of funding, Dangiwa said the bank would continue to exploit other opportunities for providing affordable financing for home ownership. 

He further said the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme remained the most affordable source of housing finance in Nigeria.

Dangiwa  said to ensure loan affordability among Nigerians, the bank had put in place a range of products that included NHF Mortgage Loans to finance affordable homeownership, FMBN Housing Cooperative Loan product, which is more amenable, to overcome the credit difficulties faced by the non-salaried/informal sector; and Home Renovation Loan, for the renovation or expansion of  houses.

He said, “All these are in addition to construction finance loan windows through the Estate Development and the Ministerial Pilot Housing Scheme run in conjunction with the FMBN’s supervisory ministry to boost the supply of houses for mortgage creation.”

He commended the initiation of the National Real Estate Data Collation and Management Programme (NRE-DCMP) and pledged the support of the bank towards creating a reliable data bank for the housing sector.

The programme, he said, was closely tied to business focus of the bank in addressing the housing needs of the low and medium income market segment.

In driving homeownership among the low and medium income market segment, he said the FMBN had financed the construction of about 20,000 housing units nationwide, as well as granted more than 20,000 mortgage loans to date.

“FMBN equally registered 21,320 contributors through 1,078 cooperative societies as a strategy to integrate the non-salaried/informal sector into the Nigerian financial services, with the ultimate goal of doubling its NHF customer base in the medium term,” he said.

Dangiwa commended the initiative of the CBN and the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) for kick-starting the programme and assured that FMBN would commit both human and financial resources towards the success of the programme.