By Yinka Kolawole

ABOUT 120,000 contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF) have received refunds totaling about N6 billion in 2016.

Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr Richard Esin, disclosed this at a forum in Enugu, adding that the recipients were retirees that met the conditions for refund. He said reiterated FMBN’s commitment to meeting its mandates of providing affordable accommodation for Nigerians.

Esin said that the bank was currently reforming its payroll system to make its services more responsive to the yearnings of contributors. He said that as part of the moves to instill confidence in contributors, the FMBN would soon commence the disbursement of quarterly e-statement of account through contributors’ emails, adding that the bank was committed to seamless processing of refunds.

“We are partnering with the Nigerian Interbank Settlement Systems to harmonise the NHF contributors’ database with their BVN. This will help us to ensure that when it comes to refunds we should not take more than 30 days,” he said.

The FMBN boss said that the bank had registered 4.2 million contributors through 22,000 employers under the NHF between January and August 2016 and had disbursed N140 million as loans within the same period. “We also expended N63 million to fund NHF mortgages. Under the estate development window, we have also funded different construction programmes totalling about N63 billion,” he said.

Esin disclosed that FMBN had made recommendations to the appropriate quarters in a move that would improve the effectiveness of the bank in achieving its mandate. He said there was the need to enforce compliance to the provisions of the NHF Act by all tiers of government, including the private sector.

He restated the need for recapitalisation of the bank to the tune of N500 billion to make it more responsive to the needs of Nigerians. “We are discussing with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the provision of an intervention fund to be administered through FMBN for the provision of mortgage financing. This is for housing units not to cost more than N5 million per unit,” he said.