The minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has reiterated the commitment of the federal government to complete ongoing housing projects across the country under the ministerial pilot housing scheme.
He stated this in Kano on Tuesday while declaring open a four-day annual management retreat of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
Mr. Fashola who was represented by the Director of Works, federal ministry of power, works and housing Mr. Onaeko Temitope Olayinka, urged the management of the bank to sustain efforts at recovering its loans and building stronger ties with its key partners such as the Nigerian Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress and the National Affordable Housing Delivery Programme.
He commended the management of the bank for injecting new innovations into its operations saying the development has ushered in a paradigm shift in mortgage banking in the country.
“Within a short period in office, the board and executive management have accelerated the operational capacity of the FMBN. For instance, as at the last meeting the board approved various categories of loans in excess of N5bn to deliver over 60,000 housing units and over a hundred mortgage jobs,” Fashola said.
Earlier, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the bank, Arc. Ahmed Dangiwa revealed that the bank has so far recovered more than N3bn loans this year, hoping to recover additional N43bn through the special presidential investigation panel for the recovery of public property in the next 18 months.
“We have not done badly in the execution of our loan recovery strategies. As a direct result of the implementation of these strategies, about N2.4billion was recovered in 2017 while more than N3billion has been recovered so far in 2018.
“We have also engaged recovery agents and restructured some loans with our debtors while recalcitrant ones have been reported to the EFCC and ICPC,” Dangiwa said.
The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, was represented at the opening ceremony of the retreat by Sarkin Shanun Kano, Alhaji Shehu Mohammed.
