FMBN to MBAN: Refrain from delaying disbursement to developers

The Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Arch. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, has warned the Mortgage Bankers’ Association of Nigeria (MBAN) to stop delaying the disbursement of funds to developers.
Dangiwa, who gave the warning at a tripartite meeting between the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mortgage Bankers’ Association of Nigeria (MBAN) and Real Estate Developers’ Association of Nigeria (REDAN) in Abuja recently, said disbursements should be made once such funds are received.
He further warned that it would not hesitate to sanctions aany mortgage banker that defaulters.
Dangiwa also urged members of MBAN to minimize the Turn Around Time (TAT) even as he charged REDAN to come up with affordable housing models and avoid unilateral changing of building designs, specifications and scope.
Non-availability of funds had been identified as some of the problems confronting the built environment in the country.
Similarly, experts and stakeholders have called for improved funding for the industry to tackle the huge housing deficit in the country, which had been estimated at 17 million.

Why housing estates in 10 states remain unoccupied
The Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank (FMBN), Arch. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, has identified affordability as the major reason housing estates built by the bank in 10 states remained unoccupied.
Dangiwa said the development was affecting genuine housing programmes despite efforts to construct cheaper homes, many of them remained inaccessible.
He stated this recently at a meeting with 9-member the delegation led by the President of the National Economic Summit Group (NESG), Engr. Kashim Ali, to FMBN headquarters, in Abuja.
The MD stated that there are plans to partner with state governments to fix the infrastructural aspect of the projects in order to reduce the entire cost.
He also said efforts were ongoing to commence implementation of the rent-to-own initiative.
While noting that the bank is the last resort for the common man, he disclosed that the Bank will partner with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to design cheap homes, reduce housing cost to ensure affordability.
“In order to assist homeowners, we realize that that factor of affordability mentioned has been a stumbling block. We currently have estates in more than 10 states that have not been occupied.
“They are being built at a cheaper rate. But despite that, people cannot access the mortgage. We are looking at two ways to address it. This housing development project for Nigerian workers, we are trying to encourage the state governments to do the infrastructure for us to reduce the housing cost.
“Second is the rent-to-own initiative. We have finished the paper, it’s just to implement it. We are discussing with the state governments to key into it.”
In his remarks, the NESG President asserted that the federal government has the constitutional mandate to provide shelter for Nigerians before talking of security and food.
He blamed stakeholders in the sector for relying on the statistics of 17 million housing deficits rather than providing more reliable data to enable proper planning and development.
He also called for the inclusion of the real estate developers and financiers in the National housing council in order to assist in the development of designing housing policies.

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