BY YINKA KOLAWOLE

Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) is set to adopt pro-active measures aimed at enhancing recovery of loans from its clients.

Chairman, FMBN, Chief Bisi Ogunjobi, said at the end of a retreat and stakeholders’ forum recently organised by the bank in Abuja, that the loan recovery drive is part of the bank’s commitment to maximising shareholders’ value, adding that the retreat was meant to identify the bank’s constraints and find solutions to them. He said FMBN was reforming its operations to enforce discipline and transparency

Ogunjobi declared the renewed determination of the nation’s apex mortgage bank to get back all its outstanding loans by reviewing the estate development loan window and the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme in order to ensure better collection of contributions from Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs). “The management has resolved to strengthen and monitor our offices at close range and we have also adopted drastic and pro-active loan recovery measures from clients and PMIs owing FMBN. It is important that those owing us should honour their obligations to us.

“We are looking at expanding the resource base of this institution, so we need to increase our share capital But at the same time we need to tap or leverage on external resources and to be able to do that we need a strong balance sheet. It is gratifying to note that over the last few years, there has been significant improvement in our balance sheet,” he stated.

The FMBN chairman also disclosed that the bank held a dialogue with the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria (MBAN) and other critical stakeholders to make sure that houses under the NHF scheme reached contributors. He added that contributors who did not take loans could now get refund without stress on retiring from service, noting that the number of those getting refund had increased by tenfold.

On the overall objective of the retreat he stated: “We looked at our challenges together and then we tried to find solutions because there is no need to just talk about the problem which we have. We should be part of the team that is finding solutions to those challenges which we have raised. The forum identified those constraints that do not make us deliver on affordable housing and how to work closely together with all the stakeholders to resolve those issues.”

Ogunjobi further disclosed that the bank’s E-collection cards would soon be issued to contributors to be used on ATM machines to enable them know the level of their contributions and ensure transparency.