In an attempt to revitalize roughly 46 deserted housing projects across the country, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria has started the rehabilitation process.
The bank stated that this would be accomplished by means of a collaboration with Shelter Afrique Development Bank, a pan-African financial organization that solely provides assistance for the advancement of the continent’s housing and real estate industry.
While hosting the management of Shelter Afrique Development Bank recently in Abuja, FMBN Managing Director Shehu Usman Osidi made this statement and mentioned that the bank had prioritized revitalizing the housing estates.
The increased cooperation, in his opinion, will assist in giving Nigerian developers access to mortgage and construction finance.”The FMBN is determined to revive Nigeria’s over 46 abandoned projects in the 36 states,” he declared.
“Our findings demonstrate that banks have contracts with states for housing financing, with the expectation that the states will supply the infrastructure needed for these estates. Regrettably, many states have broken their agreements, leading to the abandonment of these projects.
“After looking into Shelter Afrique Development Bank’s product offerings, we discovered that they provide infrastructure financing.
As a result, we would like to collaborate with them to provide this funding so we can complete the projects and give them to numerous Nigerians in need of shelter.”Osidi added that in order to meet its goal of providing 100,000 housing units to Nigerians this year, Nigeria—the country’s second-largest shareholder with a 15% stake in the bank—will investigate funding opportunities.He said the FMBN was currently going over memoranda of understanding that had been signed but were later canceled with the organization. This analysis seeks to investigate the potential advantages of this new collaboration for Nigerians.
In a separate speech, Thierno-Habib Hann, the CEO of Shelter Afrique, stated that the organization was in Nigeria to advance its agenda for development financing and to position Nigeria as a destination for investments, with over $25 billion in remittances from the diaspora coming in each year.In order to close the housing gap, he declared, “We are prepared to work with FMBN and other organizations throughout Nigeria.”
The opportunities and the challenges are both present. We are in a great position to work with the Nigerian government as development finance institution, and during this visit, we had the opportunity to meet with every member of the leadership, including the vice president, who is totally dedicated to promoting the industry’s expansion and increasing investments in it because she understands that housing generates jobs.
In the meantime, the bank reported that in 2023, it received remittances totaling roughly N100 billion via the National Housing Fund.
The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria launched the NHF scheme, which deducts 2.5 percent of employees’ basic salary each month in order to provide a steady stream of low-cost capital for long-term housing investments.
This is what Madu Hamman, the former managing director of FMBN, said in the handover document that our correspondent was able to obtain.
The National Housing Fund collection for the bank surpassed N100 billion for the first time in 2023, he stated, “which is the highlight of our accomplishments over the last 22 months.”
The bank’s annual collection has surpassed N100 billion for the first time in its history.”You have to really consider how you are going to be able to raise the money through creative means, including outside the NHF, in order to meet the demands of the many contributors to the scheme. If we just rely on the NHF, that would not be possible.”