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The Acting Managing director of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN ), Mr. Richard Esin has revealed that the bank would develop a biometric data for National Housing Fund (NHF) contributors.
This he said was to enable contributors access their funds upon retirement from service without applying for refund adding that the bank would redesign the NHF scheme without violating the fundamentals of the laws.
He stated this in Abuja yesterday when he received a 4- man delegation from World Bank Group led by Lead Financial Sector Specialist, Mr. Simon Walley on a business meeting at FMBN.
According to him,”When the law was promulgated, minimum wage was less than N3000 per annum and it was about N3 per dollar but the minimum wage has risen to N18, 000 while a dollar is over N320, so it’s been difficult to see some uniformity in the implementation of NHF.
While disclosing his intentions to turnaround the fortunes of the bank this year, he stressed the possibility of partnering with large scale developers to reduce the 17 million housing deficit and meet up with the Presidential mandate of providing 250 housing units annually by each State.
He noted that FMBN is currently carrying out assessment on its 109 estates which would be completed by third quarter of this year adding that Rent-to-Own scheme intended to bring down huge non- performing loan portfolio would also be launched by second quarter.
On corporate governance, he added, “We are trying to live by example by aligning with the policies of the institution and we are making some level of progress.
Responding, Lead Financial Sector Specialist of World Bank Group, Mr Simon Walley promised to support the strategic change, corporate governance and biometric data capturing of contributors.
He assured that World Bank would also assist in redesigning a new model that would facilitate easy access to funds by NHF contributors.
Walley regretted that developers invest huge sums of money in infrastructure which inflates the cost of housing even as he enjoined FMBN to provide smaller units of loans that would facilitate down payment on any property.