FMBN seeks N250b recapiisation for effective service delivery  

THE Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria(FMBN), Mr. Gimba Ya’u Kumo, has requested for recapitalisation of the bank to the tune of N250 billion to enable it deliver effectively on its mandates.

Fielding questions from journalists Wednesday in Abuja, Kumo noted that the present capital base of N5 billion was grossly inadequate for the bank to address the huge mortgage needs of Nigerians.

He noted that based on the availability of funds and the Memorandum of Understanding that the institution signed with the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and NECA, the FMBN intends to create about four million houses within the next four years.

Kumo, who said that this establishment was  working to address the issue of inability of developers to provide affordable houses said, “ If you look at the earnings of Nigerians, a worker who earns N18,000 is not in a position to own even a one bedroom flat, we are working together with the ministry to see if we can have discount on some of the input that make up the house like cement, we are also trying to introduce new building techniqes that would substantially reduce the cost of housing. We just came back from Thailand with the officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the Federal Ministry of Lands, housing and Urban Development, they have about seven universities doing research on affordable and sustainable housing, we took sand from Kuje in the FCT which we gave to three of the universities and it was discovered that our sand is about17 times better than theirs, they are producing some blocks for us which has less than 5percent cement content, this will help reduce the cost of housing”.