By Chris Ochayi
Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State has tasked the Federal Government to increase the capital base of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), to enable it meet the challenges of the scope of the services it renders particularly in the area of infrastructure loans.

Yakowa who spoke in Kaduna while receiving the management of FMBN led by its Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Gimba Ya’u Kumo, noted that if the infrastructure loan scope is expanded, it would help in early completion of housing projects being funded by FMBN in various parts of the country.

He urged the FMBN to release fresh infrastructure loan to Kaduna State Development and Property Company Ltd, the state-owned housing development company, to enable the state expedite work on the completion of three housing estates being funded by FMBN in Zaria, Kafanchan and Barnawa.

The Governor stressed further that if the loan is approved, the state will start thinking of how to make decent and affordable shelter available to people in the local government areas in the state with the collaboration of the FMBN.

Lauding the introduction of the informal sector unit in FMBN operations, he said that such innovation will make access to affordable shelter easy for other classes of the masses rather than just civil servants and workers in the organized private sector. “It is not only the public servants that need decent houses”, the Governor remarked, encouraging the FMBN to ensure that the informal sector services are effectively rendered.

The FMBN has however, funded the development of the three residential housing estates to the tune of N2.18 billion, where a total of 1,056 housing units are expected to be delivered.

FMBN MD, Kumo, disclosed that a major focus of the Bank is to ensure the integration of the informal sector into the National Housing Fund, NHF, using cooperative societies’ structures to organise them.

Kumo said the introduction of the informal sector unit will afford some classes of Nigerians like the Akara seller, the road side motor mechanic etc, the opportunity to own residential houses, using the platform of their cooperative societies to access NHF loans for purchase of “subsidized” houses.

The “initiative for cooperative housing for the informal sector will be launched by the Minister of Lands Housing and Urban Development in November this year”, the FMBN boss disclosed.

He urged the Governor to support the cooperative housing initiative by providing land for the construction of affordable mass housing for workers, especially teachers in Kaduna State.