FMBN Plans to Grow Investment to N1.1 trillion

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) is planning to grow its investment volume to about N1.1 trillion, making it one of the biggest banks in the country.
Abdulsalam Ahmed, managing director/Chief Executive of the bank said that the move was part of the bank’s on-going re-branding exercise.
He said the bank is expecting investments from Chinese and other international bodies. “We have commitment with the biggest company in China to bring in money for us to build a million housing units, starting with 100, 000 housing units. What we are expecting from the Chinese investors is in the region of N500 billion. What we are expecting from HSBC is in the region of N230 billion. We have gone very far with them. We are also expecting Forex International to come with N300 billion and to build houses in Nigeria.”
Abdulsalam said the bank is also planning to raise its capital base from N5 billion to N50 billion, saying this will come from foreign funding and securing facilities from the international financial institutions.
He said the bank has decided to introduce series of products into the market in its re-branding moves. One of such products is mortgage insurance which will help in increasing home ownership in the country.
“We have decided to expand our mortgage financing to the non-salary informal sector. We are concern with the people in the construction sectors such as bricklayers, mechanics, churches and mosques. We want to get them unionised so that we can serve them better. By so doing we will be encouraging the formation of corporative societies which is also a products we intends to dish out in the medium term. We are also looking at the Real Estate Investment Trust. We will encourage development and emergency of these products along with other stakeholders. We are going to deploy massive technology to ensure effective and efficient service delivery. In the long term we are also looking at the mortgage securitization.”
He said the bank is determined to increase home ownership in the country from 25 percent to over 80 percent.
In its re-branding exercise, the bank will also adopt the Microfinance Banks (MFBs) strategy in the long term to allow large number of people to have access to housing.
 “The re- branding is intended to reposition the bank in such a way that in the next three years it will be the biggest bank in the country,” he said