By YINKA KOLAWOLE

Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) is planning to disburse about N48 billion loans from the National Housing Fund (NHF) to 10,596 applicants nationwide.

Managing Director, FMBN, Mr. Gimba Ya’u Kumo, disclosed this at a sensitization workshop for operators of Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) organized by the Nigeria Deposit Corporation (NDIC), noting that the processing of the loan was already at an advanced stage. He recalled that as at August 2014, the bank had disbursed the sum of N52.8 billion to 14,179 beneficiaries across the country.

Ya’u Kumo noted that NDIC) had stepped up measures to check failures of Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) by bringing them under the Corporation’s deposit insurance scheme with the aim of safeguarding depositors’ funds.

He listed challenges confronting the sector to include: dearth of long term funds, resulting in mismatch in creating long-term mortgages; high inflation and cost of funds; under-investment in the housing finance sector; lack of secondary mortgage market to provide liquidity; legal issues such as delay in obtaining Governor’s consent; costly and cumbersome foreclosure and lack of uniform mortgages; among others.