REDAN wants Federal Mortgage Bank restructured

The Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) has called on the Federal Government to inject adequate funds into the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) to enable it to fulfill its mandate.
REDAN President, Mr. Ugochukwu Chime, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Abuja, that the bank’s mandate was to provide housing for the citizenry.
“Government must inject funds into the FMBN to restructure the housing delivery process and ensure that those compelled to contribute to this scheme, especially civil servants, benefit.
“The civil servant knows that they have not benefitted over the years from this scheme. I suggest something should be done for them possibly through another scheme they may want to embark on.

“But the reality is that if the government has accepted the FMBN as the custodian of the National Housing Fund, it should give it room to operate,’’ Chime said.
He said that the FMBN was the custodian of the contributors’ aspirations to own homes, adding that it behooves the government to restructure the bank to live up to the civil servants’ dreams.
“I was a civil servant for 15 years and therefore, I am one of them, the reality on the ground is that the Federal Government has been unfair to us.
“In no society have the lower class been left to fend for themselves without a safety net like in Nigeria.’’
According to the REDAN chief, FMBN today is controlled wholly by the Federal Government without any input from the contributors.
Chime said that government should recapitalize and restructure the bank as well as establish a mutually beneficial relationship and understanding with stakeholders for its policies to be actualized.
He said that the success of these policies would depend on its acceptance by the stakeholders.
The REDAN president noted that the problem with Nigerian mortgage banks was that the laws governing efficient operations had not been fine-tuned over the years.
“Every law is meant to be improved upon as a dynamics of execution to fill some gaps.
“We discovered that the laws governing tenancy and mortgage in the country have been tilted towards the socialist bend of protecting the people who take up these mortgages.’’
Chime added that there were no funds from the government to mortgage banks in Nigeria, unlike what obtained in other climes around the world.
“All over the whole world, mortgages start with saved funds from the government so that those who contribute from day one will have something to draw.
“There is also a law that will make sure that as they draw out they are compelled to put in.
“We have a dual situation in the country, we do not create that saved fund to draw out from and we do not create the enabling law to make sure that people who benefit, put something in.
“We are depleting everything, the government has appeared not to have understood and worked at it.
“For a primary mortgage bank to survive very well, it needs a minimum of about 10,000 mortgages in their books.
“How many of these banks in Nigeria have up to 2000 in their books, so how can they survive?’’ the REDAN chief queried.