FMBN seeks capital base increase to N500bn

The Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Madu Hamman, has stressed the need to increase the bank’s capital base to a minimum of N500bn. The MD made the appeal during a courtesy visit by the Senate Committee on Lands, Housing and Urban Development and House Committee on Housing and Habitat yesterday […]

The Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Madu Hamman, has stressed the need to increase the bank’s capital base to a minimum of N500bn.

The MD made the appeal during a courtesy visit by the Senate Committee on Lands, Housing and Urban Development and House Committee on Housing and Habitat yesterday in Abuja.

Madu said the current capital base of the bank is N5bn which was approved in 2001 with the federal government, the Central Bank of Nigeria and Nigeria Social Investment Trust Fund (NSITF) as shareholders.

He however noted that only the federal government has fully subscribed its share of N2.5bn while the CBN paid N60m out of the allotted 30 per cent (N1.5bn).

“The NSITF is yet to redeem any portion of its 20 per cent shareholding of N1 billion,” he said.

The MD further cited the challenges of reviewing the legal framework guiding the operations of the bank, noting that existing laws do not reflect current realities and therefore stall the bank’s operations.

He stated that it is in the efforts to address the challenge of operationalising the Land Use Act that the Honourable Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, is working towards establishing the National Land Commission.

The committees presided over by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, said the visit presented a forum to familiarise with the activities of the bank and identify ways of supporting FMBN in its mandate of providing affordable housing for all Nigerians.