By YINKA KOLAWOLE

The upper chamber of the National Assembly,the Senate, has promised to support the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) in a bid to make affordable housing more accessible to Nigerians.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweramandu, gave the assurance during a recent courtesy visit to the office of Managing Director of FMBN, Mr. Gimba Yau Kumo.  He pledged the support of the Senate for full implementation of the various FMBN initiatives aimed at making more Nigerians access mortgage facilities.

File Photo: Senators in session insert Jonathan

Ekweramandu charged the management of FMBN to do more to facilitate the provision of mortgages to more Nigerians to enable them own their houses. He reiterated the critical role of FMBN in housing development and noted that without adequately addressing the housing needs of the country, there cannot be major transformation.

“FMBN needs to work with the rest of the housing stakeholders to address the issue of affordable houses because when people live in shanties, they are prone to commit crimes but when they live in respectable atmosphere they behave like human beings. And you can’t achieve this without mortgage, but am happy that you are addressing that squarely,” he stated.

In his response, Yau Kumo said remarked that FMBN is encouraging Nigerians in the informal sector to access mortgage by giving them “informal sector mortgage loans” to enable them acquire their own houses.

“We realise that those contributing to the National Housing Fund, NHF, are less than 2 percent of the population. So we thought we should give opportunity to the rest 98 percent. So that is one of the initiatives we have put in place to drive the transformation agenda of the federal government in the housing sub sector,” he declared.