By Demola Akinyemi,Ilorin

In order to continue to reduce the housing deficit and provide affordable homes for Nigerians, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has committed more than N8.2B facilities to deliver 2,096 housing units in Kwara state.

Managing Director/Chief Executive of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria , FMBN Mr Madu Hamman, who said this at the commissioning of the Omowunmi Multipurpose Cooperative Union limited Housing Project at the weekend at Ogbondoroko, suburb of Ilorin said that the FMBN is delivering on it’s mandate as there is no state in Nigeria today that one will not find at least two FMBN sponsored estates.

Represented at the occasion by Executive Director, Loans and Mortgage Services Mallam Lukman O.Mustapha,he said N500m was granted in favour of the Cooperative society in 2018 for the construction of 108 housing units comprising of 54 units of 2-bedroom and 54 units of 3 -bedroom bungalow including basic infrastructure such as internal road network,drainages,electricity and water supply to create a conducive and livable environment.

“It is worthy of note that all the houses have been fully subscribed by members of the Cooperative Society .”he stressed.

He however appealed to Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to ,”graciously approve the construction and tarring of the road to the estate ,not only to facilitate easy access but to open up this area for development. “

Mustapha further called on all private and informal sector operators including the self employed in Kwara state and Nigeria at large to use the opportunities afforded by the bank’s CDHL and other loan windows to become proud home owners stressing that FMBN remains the only institution offering affordable mortgages to Nigerians at single digit rate between 6-7%.

He further said that FMBN has,” recently approved increase in the NHF Mortgage Loan ceiling from N15m to N50m par applicant in response to the calls from high income earners majorly from the private sector.

While further listing FMBN achievements in Kwara state he said that the bank has also granted,”N3.35B as Home Renovation Loan Facilities to 4744 members of Kwara state workforce including civil servants,teachers,lectures and other category of workers.”

“We have also extended the sum of N864.9M to 158 NHF contributors who have become proud homeowners in kwara state under our Rent-to-Own Scheme.In the same vein,3 beneficiaries have been granted the sum of N22.3M as individual Construction Loan by FMBN”he added.

Nevertheless,he said the success story is not limited to Kwara state alone as these feats are also being replicated across the country.

“In January we had the first in the series of our 2023 commissioning ceremonies in Borno,Adamawa,Yobe,Ebonyi,Sokoto,Kogi and Katsina states involving more than 1000 housing units. In the second phase which kicked off a couple of weeks ago,we have commissioned two estate projects in Lagos followed by 4 in Katsina,One in Anambra,4 in Enugun,3 in Kano and One Taraba earlier this week.”

In his address at the occasion,President of Omowunmi Multipurpose Cooperative Union Alh Ibrahim Yusuf Omo-Adua who commended the support of FMBN tiwards making their plans to materialise described the union as one of the grants Cooperative societies in the state.

He said that by December 2022 its financial base was N3b stressing that apart from Loan granted to members well over N20m worth of essential commodities were sold to members at affordable prices.