The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Architect Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, has charged the leadership of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to be more creative and innovative to achieve their ministerial mandate.
Dangiwa gave the charge during the formal performance review meeting with the Management Teams of the agencies; the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).
The performance review meeting was aimed at enhancing performance in achieving the mandate of the ministry as it relates to its ministerial deliveries in line with the performance contract agreement.
At the review meeting, the leadership of the FMBN and FHA presented their ministerial deliverables in line with the Performance Management System reform of the Office of the Head of the Service of the Federation.
Dangiwa recalled the charge he gave the two agencies head upon their appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu earlier this year to be creative, innovative to enhance their performances.
The FHA was charged to come up with innovative ideas, explore avenues to source funds that could help them deliver millions of housing units in the next 50 years as against the 50,000 it has provided over the past 50 years.
He warned that lack of funds would not be an excuse for FHA not to meet up on its ministerial deliverables, advising that they visit the FMBN and leverage on inter-agency collaboration for construction loan.
To the FMBN, the minister reminded the team of his emphasis on innovation and transformation, saying that the bank must lead a new era of massive housing development and delivery, notwithstanding the challenging times of high construction costs and lower income.
On ongoing projects handled by the FMBN, Dangiwa gave a warning that the ministry will not tolerate abandoned and uncompleted projects, while seeking for approval for the new ones.
He emphasised that the completion of abandoned project is key to the bank’s accomplishments.
The minister stated his expectation for FMBN to push strongly for legislative amendments to relevant housing industry laws, including the National Housing Fund (NHF) Act, 1992, and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) Establishment Act, 1993.
He also urged the team to work on the long-overdue digitalization of its entire products and service portfolio, pointing out that the world is in an era where Nigerians should register and subscribe to the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme, and apply for FMBN products such as home renovation loans and individual construction loans.
While acknowledging the current inflation in the country, the minister advised the housing agencies to rescope their buildings by leaving out the non-essentials fittings like tilling and PoP as it will not only save cost but make them affordable for Nigerians to buy.
The minister, however, expressed his readiness to provide the necessary leadership to help the agencies achieve their mandates, this according to him was demonstrated when he spoke to the leadership of Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) to meet the agencies in order to explore partnership opportunities and funding sources.
Presentating his agency’s deliverables, the MD, Federal Housing Authority, Hon. Oyetunde Ojo, noted that FHA has an ongoing direct construction of 336 housing units and one office at the Bwari Area Council of the FCT, as well as 820 housing projects under a private public partnership (PPP) and direct construction, at the Apo/Guzape area of the FCT.
He added that the agency would be ready to commission about 1000 houses by December, 2024.
He also spoke about the deployment and operationalization of Enterprise Content Management System (ECM), informing that there are 350 staff with licensed access to ECM, and 50 staff being provided with official laptops.
On his part, the MD FMBN, Alhaji Shehu Osidi, enumerated some of the targets and deliverables of the bank, saying that the bank had delivered 810 and 741 housing units respectively, for the first and second quarters of year 2024 out of the quarterly target of 1,800 units.
He also stated that the bank intends to complete ongoing projects simultaneously with new ones in the third quarter.
Osidi further mentioned other deliverables to include; 3,674 persons benefitting from the mortgage loans, establishment a National Mortgage Registry and the commencement of the digitalization of the bank’s products.