Imported User:
The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has made a profit of N188, 082,845.00 in its operations in the first quarter of 2012, the first profit record in 20 years. This is even as it has funded the building of 61,193 housing units in the six geopolitical zones in the country.
The managing director of the bank, Mr. Gimba Ya’u Kumo, who disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday, attributed the feat to the reform strategy implemented by the new FMBN management in line with the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The bank’s 2012 first quarter figures show a profit of N188, 082,845.00 as against a deficit of N256, 414,699.00 in the 2011 fiscal year. The bank had had deficits of N4,419,624,000.00 in 2010; N8,897,871,000.00 in 2009; N6,559,844,000.00 in 2008 and N5,974,371,000.00 in 2007.
Kumo remarked that the FMBN-administered National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme has been making gradual impact on Nigerians as the scheme has funded the building of more than 61,193 housing units in the six geopolitical zones.
He added that the FMBN introduced the Informal Sector Cooperative Housing Scheme in December last year to ensure that the NHF Scheme accommodates more Nigerians irrespective of their economic status.
The bank chief executive pointed out that the Scheme was intended to integrate informal sector participants like farmers, market traders, mechanics okada (motorcycle) riders into the National Housing Fund Scheme using the cooperative societies they belong to as a means of mobilising them and making affordable housing loans available to them.
Kumo remarked that, in order to ensure that NHF contributors enjoyed improved services, the bank has developed an e-platform for NHF collections to automatically deduct contributions from the payroll accounts of organisations and immediately alert their employees when such deductions hit FMBN accounts.
He stressed that this platform would effectively empower workers to monitor the deduction and remittance of their NHF contributions and eliminate unethical practices by some employers, especially those who deduct but fail to remit such deductions to FMBN.
The FMBN boss emphasised that houses built with funding from FMBN would always be sold to only NHF contributtors. This policy, he said, has been the position of the bank, just as he assured that “in collaboration with State Governments and estate developers, we are committed to strict enforcement of this policy in all its ramifications”.
