By Chris OChayi

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has recovered a total of N724 million being part of the outstanding loans owed by estate developers under the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN, National Housing Fund, NHF, scheme.

The recovery of the money according to a statement by ICPC Resident Consult, Media and Event, Folu Olamiti, is one of the major fallouts of the intervention embarked upon by the ICPC to ensure that Nigerians can own houses at affordable prices.

ICPC media consultant stated that “ the management of the FMBN is still working on the outstanding loans being owed by estate developers in the country.”

The report stated that about N34.8 billion was received from NHF contributions while N13.5 billion was collected as Internal Generated Revenue (IGR). In the same vein, N24.16 billion was disbursed as loans to estate developers and N11.4 billion to primary mortgage institutions (PMI) on behalf of NHF subscribers.

The report further indicated that some estate developers interviewed in the course of the review, complained about on the delay or non release of the approved loans as well as the interest charged by FMBN.

“ These problems consequently resulted in total abandonment or non- completion of housing projects. As the housing units were uncompleted, the consequential effect was shifted upon the NHF subscribers who could not derive any benefits from their contributions in terms of purchasing the needed housing unit,” the report noted.

Other problems encountered by the management of FMBN included high indebtedness by the estate developers due to non repayments of loans escalation in project cost, issues of interest waivers on loans already granted, lack of proper monitoring of projects location and proper financial records keeping and documentation.

Based on these findings, a stakeholders committee on housing was set up to look into the issues and problems raised in the housing policy.

The stakeholders committee is made up of 18 members drawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria, FMBN, Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development; Real Estate Developers Association, Federal Capital Development Authority and Nigerian Labour Congress.

Others are Mortgage bank Association of Nigerian, Surveyor General of the Federation and ICPC.