Housing Loan: Estate Valuer Blames Poor Performance On FMBN

An Estate Surveyor and Valuer in Port Harcourt, Mr Emma Wike, has blamed the non-performance of the Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIS) in the country in giving out loan for housing development financing, on the inefficiency of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).

Wike who is the chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Rivers State branch, in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, explained that the National Housing Funds (NHF) and the pension funds are not supposed to be in the commercial banks.

He said that such funds kept in the commercial banks are idle funds  pointing out that all funds from the NHF and Pension Fund Managers are supposed to be in the FMBN which will give them to PMIS to fund housing development projects.

According to him, the FMBN is the major Mortgage Institution in Nigeria and is the apex mortgage bank, just like the CBN, while other private mortgage institutions are secondary.

He said “the Apex Mortgage bank which is the primary mortgage bank is not functioning property and that is why the secondary mortgage banks are having problems”.

“The secondary mortgage banks are now operating like the commercial banks with high interest rates and shorter period of repayment, due to lack of proper funding”, he said.

Wike maintained that pension and NHF are idle funds that are supposed to be used for mortgage financing, through the FMBN, with low interest.

Corlins Walter