Air Force, FMBN sign MOU on Abuja apartments

PLANS by the Federal government (NAF) to provide officers and men of the Air Force with descent residential accommodation may have been actualised, following an agreement between the Nigerian Air Force and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) last week in Abuja for the development of housing units in 120 hectares of land off the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Road, Abuja.Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) FMBN will finance the construction of housing units and will facilitate mortgage loans for NAF personnel through licensed Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) duly accredited by it.Already, NAF personnel are contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme and are being captured by the FMBN records.Chairman of the FMBN, Alhaji Adedamola Atta, said at the signing of the MoU that the mortgage firm has the 'international connection to raise finance for noble projects like this and that is what we are going to do.'Atta, who praised 'the palacious headquarters and for the beautiful maintenance of the structure' said that he is confident that the NAF City which will be built on the 120 hectares of land will be maintained as the headquarters structure.To improve service delivery of the NHF scheme, the FMBN is developing 'NHF E-Collection platform in collaboration with a consultant. It is an IT-driven collection process to capture all contributions by using IT infrastructure of all commercial banks in the country and remit such deductions to FMBN seamlessly. The initiative aims to overcome the deficiencies of the manual collection of NHF contributions and ultimately increase the capacity of the bank to provide mortgages for the generality of Nigerians.'Managing Director of FMBN, Gimba Ya'u Kumo added that the deployment of the e-collection platform would soon commence with a pilot scheme covering Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) within the Federal Capital Territory.The FMBN, in an earlier MoU, had allocated 270 houses being constructed in an Abuja estate to NAF personnel. It is being financed through the NHF.Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Mohammed Dikko Umar, pledged to give all support to ensure the houses for the personnel are delivered, saying; 'we will work hand in hand until our objectives are achieved. And with the project, we look forward to greater days ahead.
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