A Kano State-owned mortgage bank, the Dala Building Society, says it has disbursed N1.36 billion housing loans to no fewer than 2, 400 civil servants in the state. The Acting Managing Director of the bank, Alhaji Abdulnasser Abdu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Saturday that N480 million were disbursed 2,000 workers from May 2011 to date.

Abdu said it also gave N983 million were disbursed to 400 indigenes, who were Federal civil servants in Abuja to enable them to build their own houses. “This loan was disbursed during the administration of former Gov. Ibrahim Shekarau to the federal civil servants in Abuja.

This is to assist Kano State indigenes working with the Federal Government and residing in Abuja, who want to acquire their personal houses in the Federal Capital Territory.

“What we are doing now is to recover the loans for onward disbursement to other beneficiaries that is why we have debt recovery unit in the bank,” he said. The managing director commended the State Government for issuing certificate of occupancy on time to facilitate loans from the bank and other financial institutions without stress. He expressed the readiness of the bank to assist civil servants in the state to own their personal houses before they retired from service.

Abdu urged the people to make use of the opportunity provided by the government to build their own houses. He said that they should not to be afraid of the feasibility studies on individuals by the bank before giving out the loans. “The company has a large number of layouts in Kano for those who want to acquire land or build their own houses.”