The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), has inaugurated seven specialised loan recovery task teams to fast track the recovery of its loans tied across the country.
The managing director of the Bank, Shehu Osidi, who inaugurated the teams in Abuja, said the decision was necessary in order to enhance the financial stability and operational efficiency of the Bank through reducing non-performing loans.
He said that over the years, FMBN played a crucial role in providing affordable housing finance to Nigerians, thereby contributing significantly to the achievement of the national housing agenda and promotion of home ownership.
According to Osidi, the sustainability of these efforts hinges on the Bank’s ability to recover loans effectively and reinvest them in future projects. He emphasised that over the years, the Bank has performed poorly in recovering its loans and stressed the need for a specialised task team to assist in that aspect.
“The inauguration of these teams marks a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to enhance the financial stability and operational efficiency of the Bank”.
“Loan recovery is a critical component of our financial management strategy. This is to ensure that funds are available for disbursement to new beneficiaries while maintaining the integrity of our lending operations.
“Despite the successes we have recorded in our home delivery efforts, we must acknowledge the enormous challenges we face with our Non-Performing Loans (NPLs). While some of NPLs are due to infractions from external parties and factors, a huge chunk of blame also lies with us as internal stakeholders hand-in-hand with glaring administrative and operational inefficiencies”, he said.
While reiterating the mandate of the task teams to include conducting desk review of assigned loan portfolios which includes the history of loans, houses on ground as well as state of collaterals, outstanding balances and personalities behind the loans, the FMBN boss added that the team would also look at the segmentation of the loans and the chances of recovery, develop an overreaching recovery strategy, engage relevant stakeholders as well as use both conventional and informal but acceptable strategies to carry out the recoveries.