By  YINKA KOLAWOLE

The National Housing Fund (NHF) collections from over four million subscribers nationwide has increased by about 250 percent to N2.4 billion monthly from N700 million.

Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr. Gimba Yau Kumo, who disclosed this, attributed the increase to the automation of the bank’s operations and the introduction of e-collection platform processes. He said this shortly after the inauguration of the new executive management to steer the affairs of the bank for the next four years.

The NHF scheme was established to facilitate the continuous flow of low-cost funds for long-term investment in housing, through 2.5 per cent monthly deductions from employees earning a basic salary of N3,000 or more annually, for the benefit of contributors to the fund. FMBN is statutorily charged with the collection and management of the fund.

Ya’u Kumo declared that each of the four million contributors to the Fund can now monitor their contributions via the information technology (IT) platform to access and know what they have with the bank. “What we have also done is that once you achieve the 35 years in service or you have attained the age of 60, you can collect all your contributions with interest, that is, if you don’t have any mortgage with the bank,” he added.

According to him, the bank had restructured its corporate governance and risk management guidelines in line with international best practice. He noted that this has led to its improved lending for estate development and mortgage financing for affordable home ownership across the country.

In the quest to extend mortgage services to unbanked Nigerians, he said FMBN had launched the Informal Sector Housing Cooperative scheme to tap into the market segment comprising more than 70 percent of the country’s working population. “FMBN has initiated a four million housing unit programme under a partnership struck with the TUC, NLC and NECA aimed at delivering affordable housing for Nigerian workers nationwide,” he noted.

The FMBN boss also said that the bank has concluded plans to start granting house refurbishment loans to civil servants across the country. His words: “I’m happy to announce that effectively, next week, we will start to roll out FMBN House Refurbishment Loan (HRL) for civil servants across the federation. Federal civil servants working in other parts of the country do not need to come to Abuja to access the loan. You can apply if you are in Ondo in your Ondo office, if you are in Gombe, you apply in your Gombe office, etc.

“We realise that quite a number of civil servants that are contributing to the housing scheme have houses but they need to change either furniture or they need to upgrade the houses they are living in. So that was why we came up with this policy.” He hinted that for the civil servants in Abuja, the Federal Government Housing Loans Board will be given the project as the FMBN is already in working relationship with the board.