THE ROLE OF FEDERAL MORTGAGE BANK IN ALLEVIATING POVERTY IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
1.0. INTRODUCTIONÂ
BACKGROUND
The term housing when broadly defined goes beyond building structures that provide shelter for man, it embraces the basic facilities required for convenience both within and around the house such as infrastructural services (Roads, electricity, water supply etc) and development control. Thus housing involved the provision of shelter, services and facilities for the public health and the social well-being of the family and the individuals. Whereas poverty on the other hand is the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount (money). It is also the state of one who lacks a certain relative amount of material possession or money.
The federal mortgage bank has contributed widely in removing poverty in Nigeria by giving out loan to citizens and small scale businessmen. Micro finance is created to fill this gap. They also lend small amount of money to small entrepreneurs in order to create a mechanism to alleviate poverty by providing the poor with resources that are available to the wealthy. Banking is not just for provision of capital for the poor, but to also combat poverty at an individual level, it also has a role at institutional level, it seek to create institution that delivers financial service to the citizen who are continuously ignored by the formal banking sector.
From 1973 to 2012, the federal housing authority (FHA) has built only 30,000 housing unit when the present housing need is huge. A gloomy picture of the critical housing condition in the country is apparent, this also reflected in the contribution of the entire housing sector to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) In 1976, the Nigerian building society (NBC) was transformed into the federal mortgage bank of Nigeria (FMBN). The 1989 decree 53 set up the primary mortgage institution to carry out retail mortgage finance while the (FMBN) is to carry out wholesale activities of mortgage financing. The national housing policy was launched in 1991 as promotional (CBN April/June 1995:18)
