Reps confront FMB for financing only 36,000 housing units in 10yrs

…says housing units grossly inadequate for Nigeria.

Jonas Ezieke, Abuja

The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Overlapping Mandate of Government Agencies has tasked the. Managing Director Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria Ltd FMB Mr. Madu Hamman to brace up for financing of the housing needs of Nigerian citizens as the 36,000 housing units it financed is grossly inadequate for the citizenry.

Chairman of the House Committee Hon.Victor Mela stated this in interactive meeting of the House panel with the FMB, Bank of Agriculture and other government owned financial institutions at the ongoing probe on overlapping mandate of the government agencies

He said that Nigerians are not getting the value for the money the federal government is investing in the federal financial services institution with the mandate to finance housing needs of the public servants in the country.

He further that many government agencies are having overlapping mandate with similar agencies adding that it had raised the cost of governance in the nation at the detriment of the welfare of citizens.

He also said that provision of 36,000 housing units in ten years by the agency is a far cry from the need for housing for million of Nigerians urging the agency to provide the needed funds for the citizenry to build more housing units

Earlier in a presentation before the House probe panel, the Managing Director of the agency Mr Madu Hamman had told the committee that the agency had financed 36,000 unit of housing for public servants in Nigeria.

He told the committee members that the Federal Mortgage Bank FMB created and empowered as a primary mortgage institution to provide liquidity to the housing sector for public officers

He informed the House panel that Central Bank of Nigeria its role of providing funds for the bank to finance housing needs of the citizens adding that the bank had taken over its licencing and supervision functions.

He however said that in the last six years, the agency was able to deliver only 36,000 housing units to civil and public servants in the country and added their mandate is different from other federal financial institutions.

But the Committee Chairman Hon.Mela and some other lawmakers said that the bank had not lived up to its duties in the housing sector and should consider the option of merging with other banks

A ranking member of the House panel Hon.Wole Oke also said that the relevant Committee on Housing should strengthen its oversight duties on the financial institutions for effective service delivery to the citizens of Nigeria.

Meanwhile the House panel also invited and grilled the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture BOA Alwan Ali Hassan on the same subject and called on the bank to offer guaranteed credit scheme to farmers in the country.

He told the lawmakers that many farmers in the country had benefited from scheme but lamented that the current wave of insecurity that had prevented many of them from farming.