By Oladele Oguntimehin
The Managing Director, Ahmed Adamu, of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) revealed that the company has recovered a total of N5.4 billion from 2017 to date.
Adamu stated that a breakdown of the bad debts, which were recovered as a result of the execution of the bank’s loan recovery strategies, included N3 billion so far recovered in 2018 and about N2.4 billion recovered in 2017.
Adamu explained, speaking at a management retreat of the bank held in Kano, said that they have also engaged some recovery agents to help in that regard, adding that in some cases, they had resorted to restructuring the loans with the debtors.
He disclosed that the bank had no option but to report the recalcitrant debtors to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offenses Commission (ICPC) for their intervention.
“The bank is also working with the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property to recover bad debts,” he stated.
Adamu said, “in the panel’s interim report to the bank recently, there are strong indications that the sum of N43 billion will be recovered within the next 18 months. At every opportunity in our endeavors across the country, we visit the estates tied to these loans and interface with developers and residents to work out solutions towards recovering our investments.”
In his remarks at the retreat, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, charged the bank to sustain its aggressive debt recovery efforts while tasking them to focus on cost cutting measures to avoid unnecessary expenditure.
Represented by the Director, Land, Ministry of Works and Housing, Deacon Temitope Onaeko, he said that the housing finance and construction sector is critical to the national economic growth and accounts for multiple job creation for skilled and unskilled labor in the country.
He recalled that the sector was critical to critical to the turning around of the national economy from a state of recession that was in existence last year.
While appreciating the board and management of the bank for accelerating the operational capacity of the bank in so short a time, he said that government would not relent in its responsibility of providing the right policy initiatives for the development of the sector.
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