Federal housing scheme to deliver 1m affordable homes
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Federal authorities have put N712 billion on the table as additional mortgage sums provided contributors to the National Housing Fund to help finance 100,000 housing units North and South.
This was disclosed at the inaugural Board and Management Retreat of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) held in Abuja to brainstorm delivery of one million affordable homes under the National Housing Programme (NHP).
FMBN Board Chairman Ayodeji Gbeleyi said the board has approved a plan that would raise mortgage sums for the construction of houses.
His words: “In line with the mandate of the Federal Government to expand the housing sector in general and deepen the mortgage sub-sector in particular, the bank’s board approved a five-year strategy plan covering the period 2020-2024 with focus on certain key performance indicators.
“The KPIs include growing the National Housing Fund contributions from N49 billion in 2018 to N285 billion per annum, increase contributors from about 4.8 million in 2018 to 31.6 million in 2024, to finance a cumulative of 100,000 housing units and grow mortgages to N712bn in 2024.”
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Achieving targets
Gbeleyi listed measures to achieve targets of the plan to include
- Deepening mortgage penetration by facilitating access to homeownership
- Growing and diversifying funding mix through diversification of funding sources
He said Abuja initiated the NHP to address the housing deficit, he said with a target to provide millions of homes nationwide, per reporting by The PUNCH.
“The NDP sets specific targets for the period 2021-2025 to improve access to affordable housing by delivering homes to Nigerians with a baseline of 500,000 per year and ultimately 1,000,000 per year, 20 per cent of which would be by the public sector.”
Gbeleyi said despite the progress made, the high cost of building materials and challenges in accessing land, and mortgage financing remain major constraints “and by implication, [to] the operations and performance of the FMBN.”
Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola who unveiled FMBN’s corporate statement at the retreat, disclosed the bank would approach the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to insure its contributors’ funds.
“Consistent with our current thinking, the National Council on Housing and Lands has adopted the recommendation for the bank to seek NDIC’s insurance of its contributors’ funds just as is done for depositors in other banks.
“These are some of the actions and events of strategy repositioning, intended to deliver optimised performance,” he said.
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