The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria has disbursed  N2.6 billion to 3,034 beneficiaries under  its intervention housing loan through the Federal Staff Housing Loan scheme, the Managing Director, Mr Ahmed Dangiwa, has said.

Dangiwa said this in Abuja on Wednesday when Mrs Hannatu Fika,the Executive Secretary of  Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board, paid him a courtesy visit.

“As the Federal Government tries to provide cost effective and affordable housing for civil servants, it is pertinent to note that a total sum of N2.6 billion has so far been disbursed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to 3,034  beneficiaries through the Federal Staff Housing loan.

“ I am also indeed very pleased with the remarkable results that we have been able to achieve in the Home Renovation Loan,’’ he said.

According to him, the Home Renovation Loan is one of several products of the bank aimed at ensuring contributors to the National Housing Fund benefit from the scheme.

He stated that the FMBN Home Renovation Loan was created for the purpose of renovating existing structures  at six per cent for tenure of five years maximum.

Dangiwa said the bank remained determined to provide affordable mortgages to Nigerian workers as part of its initiatives to complement President Muhammadu Buhari’s housing sector reforms.

He said that the bank had also launched what is called the Cooperative Housing Development Loan (CHDL) that would enable a cooperative society that had  acquired a plot of land to develop houses for  allocation to its members.

Dangiwa said that the loan was expected to give a vast majority of  economically disadvantaged Nigerians who constituted the informal sector, the opportunity to have decent homes of their own.

According to him, the bank is grossly undercapitalised compared to the situation in other countries.

He said  that capitalisation was key to the success of the bank and appealed to the  government to hasten the process to improve the capital base of the bank.

Dangiwa said that an increased capital base would place the bank in a better position to refinance mortgages, as it could not meet the bulk of the demands for mortgage loans from its various stakeholders at the moment.

“The bank’s capitalisation is below five billion naira so we need about N500 billion which will create a lot of impact to the bank; we will be able to create more affordable mortgages and many more,’’ he said.

Fika said that for the past four years the board had had a good partnership with the bank.

She said that the bank had  done well on the renovation loan which had helped civil servants to renovate many of their homes.

Fike said houses for civil servants would enable them to improve their productivity.

She said that  the board had been working hard  to ensure that public servants owned their own homes.

Fika said that the renovation loan scheme  had been successful, adding that the scope would be expanded into a scheme tagged, ‘Rent to Own.’

She explained that bank would build the houses, allocate them to staff who were an entitled  and they would begin to pay rent on their own homes, which they would own on completion of paying for the cost of the houses. (NAN)