The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) collected N134.1 billion as the National Housing Fund (NHF) since its inception in 1992, the Managing Director of the bank, Alhaji Gimba Kumo, disclosed this in Abujaon Wednesday.
Kumo was the Guest Speaker at a leadership forum organised by Nigerian Newsworld and Nigerian Pilot Newspapers.
He said that out of the amount, the bank collected N8.1 billion from December, 2010 to date.
The FMBN boss said that the achievement was made possible through its awareness programmes on the benefit of the fund, which other states key into.
According to him, the monthly collection of the bank stands between N2.2 billion and N2.5 billion, while efforts are being made to improve on it.
Kumo said that the Federal Government approved N5 billion as the capital base in 2003-2004, adding that the current capital base stood at N2.5 billion.
He said that the bank would need N250 billion capital base to operate to capacity.
He explained that before December, 2010, between 22 and 24 states were contributing to the NHF, but the bank had increased the number to 31, including FCT.
Kumo urged the Federal Government to provide infrastructure, insisting that the bank in most cases provided infrastructure to estate developers, apart from giving them loans.
He said that the total refund of NHF before 2010 was less than N1 billion, adding that it was, however, recently been raised to N2.7 billion.
The managing director assured the public that the contributions to NHF was safe, saying the bank would pay contributors as at when due.
“Your contributions are not lost; all will be paid in full with two per cent interest as at when due; so have the confidence that your contributions are safe,’’ he said.
Kumo also said that the bank had been consistent in providing affordable houses across the country, especially for the low income earners.
He said President Goodluck Jonathan had inaugurated most of the housing units in various parts of the country.
Mr Dennis Sami, Publisher of the Newsworld and the Nigerian Pilot, said the forum was organised to highlight some of the achievements of the present administration in the housing sector.
Sami said housing was cardinal to the government’s Transformation Agenda and urged the public to key into the NHF for better housing delivery.
