The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has solicit the support of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in the recovery of its huge bad debts from developers and others, who obtained housing loans from it but misappropriated the fund.
Acting Managing Director of the apex mortgage bank, Richard Esin, made the request when he paid a courtesy call on the chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, at the weekend, in Abuja.
Esin informed the anti-graft boss that, but for the resilience of the bank, it would have been unable to meet the financial requests of thousands of Nigerians including members of staff of the commission because of defaulting developers.
He disclosed that the concerned developers have a huge debt overhang with the bank, explaining that they obtained construction finance from the bank to build estates, but diverted the funds into other non-productive and non-regenerative activities.
According to him, some developers completed the estates, sold the housing units and failed to remit the proceeds to the bank.
Esin said some Primary Mortgage Banks, which obtained funds from the bank for Mortgage Finances, for on-lending to qualified National Housing Fund (NHF) contributors, declined to disburse the funds to the applicants; while others obtained equity contribution from would-be mortgagors, but refused to deploy same in the provision of mortgage finances to the applicants’ benefit.
Esin expressed worry that despite the revocation of their operational licences, some of the operators of the Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) are still deceptively encouraging innocent and unsuspecting mortgagors to continue to repay their mortgages to them through fictitious accounts with no intention of remitting same to FMBN.
He appealed to Magu to assist in the recovery of bank funds from contractors and vendors who were mobilised to execute various contracts for the bank, but failed to execute same and misappropriated the bank’s money.
“These activities are fraudulent, and constitute financial crimes. We, therefore, seek the EFCC’s kind assistance in the recovery of these funds which belong to the Nigerian workers,” he said.
Speaking further, Esin informed Magu that his management remains committed to helping members of staff of the commission own houses, noting that after the historic MoU between both organisations, the FMBN has disbursed N3 billion in 10 batches to 156 staff members of the commission.
He further disclosed that N1.6 billion worth of NHF loans for 113 members of staff of EFCC packaged by FGMB are currently awaiting board approval, while N1.3 billion has been approved as NHF loans for EFCC staff, but not disbursed because the targeted houses are no longer available. “FMBN will work with other interested PMBs to revive the scheme once they are able to provide the bank with a suitable and acceptable security,.” he said.
