The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) said in Ilorin on Thursday, 26 November, 2020 that it has refunded about N22billion to contributors into the National Housing Fund scheme under the present administration.
The refund was made to the contributors, who retired from service either as a result of age or years of service.
The Executive Director, Business Development and Planning of the Bank, Dankani Umar Abdulahi, disclosed this at a One-day Sensitization on National Housing Fund Scheme organized for the Kwara State chpater of Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in Ilorin.
The sensitization programme, which was at the instance of the federal government institution, was designed to provide relevant information about the National Housing Scheme and dispel the controversies surrounding the scheme.
Abdulahi, who described the refund as an improvement, maintained that it constitutes a paradigm shift from the past.
The Executive Director emphasised the importance of supplying all the basic information required for refund.
He admonished the contributors to be free to walk into the FMBN and ask for information and update their data for proper documentation, assuring that their contributions were being properly managed.
Also speaking, the Branch Manager of FMBN, Kwara State, Adedokun Adekanye, said the bank has introduced other packages such as House Renovation loan.
He hinted that the financial institution has gone digital with contributors required to provide additional information on the scheme, urging them to supply the information.
Adekanye, who also spoke on the sidelines of the event, said the products of the federal mortgage bank were available to every Nigerian.
He declared that the contributions for the national housing fund were for those in the formal and informal sectors of the economy.
The FMBN branch manager, however, regretted the adverse of COVID-19 on the contributions of some categories of contributors.
“We do the sensitization on regular basis to enable them (participants) to know the products of FMBN. We have so many products that relating to housing. Our responsibility is to gather them from all the 16 local government areas and explain to them what benefit they should drive as a result of their contributions to the National Housing Fund of 2.5 percent of their basic salaries on monthly basis.
“There is no gainsaying that COVID-19 has negative effect on the economy generally in the whole world, not only in Nigeria and even particularly our organization. For the formal, we are lucky because federal government did not stop salaries and most state governments continue to pay salaries. As a result of that, the deductions still come to us.
“But for the informal sector, which is earn as you work, it has some reasonable effects on their contributions”, Adekanye said.