By Dwelleth Morountodun
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, has charged the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN),
to do more on publicity as most Nigerians were currently not well informed of the competitive that the bank has, which is its unique selling points.
Nigeria’s housing deficit according to statistics is said to be about 20 million.
The minister, who hosted the board members in his office on Thursday, said Nigerians should be informed that the bank grants construction loans with more competitive interest rate than those offered by commercial banks.
He said: “You must find a strategy to pass information on platforms that people take information from and that include, not only the conventional platforms like television, newspapers and radio, but also markets, places where people gather; sports clubs, social clubs and so on. You must reach out”.
“You must also engage the appropriate skill sets in getting this message out”, adding that the bank must also seek to reach the people at the bottom of the pyramid who, according to him, “also save money in their small businesses, in their small cooperatives.” So why not open accounts for them too”, he said.
The Minister, who was responding to the remarks of the Board Chairman, Mr. Adewale Adeeyo, on the uncompleted re-capitalization of the bank, said the ministry would see that the process was completed as the government of the day placed importance on housing and consumers credit.
The Minister reiterated government’s commitment to the completion of all on-going and abandoned projects across the country.
The policy direction of the present administration was on completing all on-going and abandoned projects, he said.
According to him: “It is one of those areas of urgent focus by the President as a way of creating prosperity and as a way of enhancing the dignity of Nigerians.”
Fashola, said there was a lot that could be jointly done by the ministry and the bank in the actualization of the President’s housing agenda assuring the bank of the ministry’s readiness to look at its projects that are on-going and fashion out ways of completing them.
Earlier, Adeeyo, had solicited for the completion of the re-capitalization process of the bank, put at N500 billion target, SHARPEDGENews learnt.