Mortgage bank sets to bridge gap of housing deficits ― Executive Director

The  Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria has declared that the bank is ready and fully committed to bridge the gap between it and its numerous customers across the country in other to bring about more houses and improved on infrastructural development in Nigeria.

This was the message of the bank executive director, business development and portfolio management, Abdullahi Umar Dankane when he was addressing reporters during the Northern Zonal Retreat of the bank held at Darkani hotels in Sokoto.

The executive director disclosed that the bank is ready to create awareness for the general public about the importance of the bank and why Nigerians must key into the activities of the Federal Mortgage Bank in the country.

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He said, “there is so many importance of this bank that people are not aware of before now, but since the last two years that Mr President appointed this management, we have been doing a lot in terms of creating more awareness for the bank.

” We have been trying to reposition the bank and you can see that the bank is in every nook and crannies of Nigeria. This is one of the reasons why this Zonal retreat was taken to Sokoto, to enabled people of this area to know more about the bank and its activities.

“We want more people to key into it. Everyone needs a house and the best way to get a house is through the mortgage, but a lot of people are not aware of this. So, we are in Sokoto to tell the entire people of Northern Nigeria the importance of this bank.

” We intend to let people know what the mortgage bank is all about, how do you own a house through the mortgage, how do you access to mortgage and many other benefits one can derive through mortgage bank.

Dankane further disclosed that the contribution through mortgage is voluntary and will be paid back to everyone upon retirement from service with two percent interest. He reassured that his management has reviewed the timing of paying back the contributions from ninety to sixty days.

He said, “I am happy to tell Nigerians that our management is even paying back within thirty days. Let me also inform you that the whole amount refunded to contributors is about 24 billion naira, out of which our management refunded 16 billion out of the 24 billion in the last two years back to the people.

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” We are also trying to get accurate data of how our the contributors perform so that by the time one exits, he will the full benefits of his contributions alongside the benefits and interest. The good thing is before you can access mortgage bank benefits, you must be a full-time contributor, without being a contributor you can not get fund from the bank.

“Also, for the benefits of our people in this area who may be discouraged about the interest as a result of Sharia, I am happy to tell you that we are going into Sukuk methods, which will not allow any interest, that is interest-free.

“Let me also tell you that we have a collaboration with many unions such as TUC, NLC, and others. One of the housing schemes is presently under construction in Sokoto here. We intend to build one hundred houses in every state of Nigeria of which we already started with 14 states and Sokoto state is one of them, a collaborative project to be completed within six months and will be a rollover programme for Nigerians” he added.