FMBN calls for intervention fund to ease housing construction
By Angel Aluya and Ella Anokam
Fund
Abuja, Aug. 14, 2018 (NAN) The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has stressed the need for special intervention fund to ease access to housing construction finance by the operators in the sector.
The FMBN Managing Director, Ahmed Dangiwa, made the call on Tuesday during his keynote address at the 2018 ARCHIBUILT Expo, in Abuja.
“The Federal Government needs to make critical targeted funding intervention to ease access to housing construction finance by the operators in the sector.
“This has been done to other sectors by the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and should be replicated in the real estate sector,’’ Dangiwa said.
He noted that the necessary framework for this initiative should be developed and must be sustained using existing institutions already created by the government.
He said that scarcity of long-term housing and mortgage finance has constituted a considerable challenge overtime, adding that Land Governance System also made access to land and titles cumbersome and costly.
“In Nigeria, apart from mortgages offered by FMBN through the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme, you can hardly get any long-tenured mortgage loan not to talk of getting same at single digits offered by FMBN.
“Unfortunately, without a land and its title you cannot access mortgage finance or any source of structured housing finance whatsoever. This has made access to Land and mortgage finance for housing difficult,’’ he said.
According to him, at the end of second quarter of 2018, NHF has funded the origination of 18,476 mortgage loans, the delivery of 26,002 housing units across the country and 13,953 FMBN Home Renovation Loans, with N197billion invested in these assets.
He said that the FMBN has concluded plans to roll out several products to enhance home affordability, eliminate down payments and other costs associated to mortgage loans arrangements within the third quarter of the year.
Dangiwa said this was targeted at various housing estates being constructed, adding that the project was expected to inject over 2,000 housing units into the national housing stock by 2020.
In an address, Dr Omede Idris, President Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), and Chairman of the event, called for synergy among the professional bodies for effective and efficient timely delivery of the roles and responsibilities.
“As professionals we should be guided by this and not allow individual or group interest to becloud this even if the instrument of law or association that guides us, is found deficient.
“In the same vein, it should be our continuous effort as professionals in our clime to relate and liaise with law makers, on draft bills that have to do with professions and professionalism.
In an address, the Chairman ACHIBUILT Development Services Limited Board, Mohammed Faworaja, said that 2018 expo would emphasize on the impact and strides of technology in all sectors and on Architecture.
Faworaje, an Architect, said that ARCHIBUILT was set up as a professional forum to bring together Architects, other Professionals, Contractors, Building Materials Manufacturers, and Students to dialogue on full development potential the sector.
“One of the focus of ACHIBUILT from inception is encouragement of continuous development of indigenous building materials and services and this is being sustained even at the expo.
“The expo will feature workshop on Glass Technology and safety in the built environment in conjunction with partners to expound the use and new trend in the specification of glass products,’’ he said.
The 29th edition of ARCHIBUILT EXPO has its theme as “Driving Nigeria Architecture through Technology.’’ (NAN)
AA/ELLA/AFA
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Edited by Felix Ajide