The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission has focused its attention on developers and primary mortgage
banks that obtained housing loans to the tune of N100bn from the Federal
Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, but misappropriated the funds.
The Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim
Magu, promised the FMBN that the anti-graft agency would help the bank
to recover the funds when the acting Managing Director and Chief
Executive Officer of the bank, Richard Esin, led his team to the
corporate headquarters of the EFCC in Abuja.
The EFCC said on its official Facebook page that Esin applauded Magu for his achievements in the fight against corruption.
The statement read in part, “He (Esin)
said the bank had come to identify with the commission and to also plea
for the assistance of the EFCC to intervene and recover about N100bn
which is in the hands of developers and primary mortgage banks.
“Magu appreciated the management of the
bank for the visit and assured them that the commission would do
everything within its mandate to assist the bank and prevent it from
going under.”
In a separate statement, Esin informed
the anti-graft boss that but for the resilience of the bank, it would
not have been able to meet the financial requests of Nigerians,
including employees of the EFCC, because of fraudulent partner
developers.
According to FMBN’s acting MD,
fraudulent partner developers have a huge debt overhang with the
bank, explaining that they obtained construction finance from the
bank to build estates, but diverted the funds into other non-productive
and non-regenerative activities.
He further stated that some developers
completed the estates, sold the housing units and failed to remit the
sales proceeds to the bank.
Esin said some primary mortgage banks,
which obtained funds from the bank for mortgage finances for
on-lending to qualified National Housing Fund contributors, failed
to disburse the funds to the applicants, while others obtained equity
contribution from would-be mortgagors but refused to deploy same in the
provision of mortgage finances to the applicants’ benefit.
The bank MD expressed worry that despite
the revocation of their operation alliances, some of the operators of
the primary mortgage banks were still deceptively encouraging
innocent and unsuspecting mortgagors to continue to repay their
mortgages to them through fictitious accounts with no intention of
remitting same to the FMBN.
He appealed to Magu to assist in the
recovery of bank funds from contractors and vendors who were mobilised
to execute various contracts for the bank, but failed to execute same
and misappropriated the bank’s money.
He said, “Their activities are
fraudulent, and constitute financial crimes. We, therefore, seek the
EFCC’s kind assistance in the recovery of these funds which belong to
the Nigerian workers.”
Speaking further, Esin informed Magu
that his management was committed to helping the workers of the
commission to own houses, noting that after the Memorandum of
Understanding between both organisations, the FMBN had disbursed N3bn in
10 batches to 156 employees of the EFCC.
He added that N1.6bn worth of NHF loans
for 113 workers of the EFCC packaged by the FGMB were awaiting board
approval, while N1.3bn had been approved as NHF loans for EFCC workers,
but not disbursed because the targeted houses were no longer available.
