The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa has said that the bank’s Board and Executive Management Team remains optimistic in its push to achieve the core components of the strategic roadmap to reposition the nation’s foremost mortgage bank and increase its capacity to promote access to affordable housing for more Nigerians are on course.
This includes the N500bn recapitalization; review of the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme and FMBN establishment Acts and the overall automation of all FMBN business processes.
Arc. Ahmed Dangiwa stated this in his remarks to mark the third-year anniversary of the current FMBN Executive Management Team which came on board in April 2017.
He noted that while FMBN has in the last three years surpassed all key corporate performance indicators such as the size and speed of mortgage loan disbursements, refunds to retired contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme, housing stock construction amongst others, the overall goal is to fundamentally turnaround the bank by increasing the size of its capital, restructuring its legal framework and putting technology at the heart of its operations.
In his words “We are proud of what we have achieved in the past three years. Our performance shows the potential of FMBN to make a difference in affordable housing delivery if properly empowered.
However, our goal is to leave a legacy of a structurally transformed, financially robust and highly efficient FMBN that is leading in the delivery of affordable social housing to Nigerian workers. We are making progress in our advocacy to the Federal Government to increase FMBN’s capitalization from the current N5billion to N500billion.
This will give the bank the financial resilience to leverage additional financing to tackle the rising housing deficit. With the support of the Honorable Minister of Works & Housing, Babatunde Fashola SAN we believe this is realizable”.
Regarding the review of the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme and FMBN establishment Acts pending at the National Assembly, the FMBN MD/CEO stated that the bank is working closely with relevant stakeholders toward resolving the issues that caused the Presidency to withhold assent.
“Since then, we have consulted with key stakeholders to fix all issues of concern that were raised and are happy to observe that we are making good progress. This groundwork that we are doing we hope will hopefully ensure that the emerging provisions in the bills will be acceptable to all parties and we will not experience the delay that occurred before” Arc. Dangiwa said.
Arc. Dangiwa also said that he is hopeful that the bank’s Core Banking Project will be implemented as a foundation for a total migration of the bank’s business operations from manual to digital thus improving efficiency and service delivery. He noted that the proposal is currently awaiting presentation and approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).