The Cooperative Mortgage Bank (CMB) has commended the Federal Government for approving N2 billion for the Cooperative Social Housing Scheme to address the housing deficit in the country.
Mr Kabir Tukur, Managing Director of CMB, gave the commendation at a one-day sensitisation workshop for co-operators in Nasarawa state on Wednesday in Lafia.
Tukur said that the initiative would enable low-income earners to own houses and offer upgrade funding to co-operators to upgrade their houses.
He also said that the initiative was a collaboration between the Federal Government and the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria (CFN).
According to him, it is aimed at delivering affordable houses with ease of payment via a mortgage to co-operators through their various societies.
The managing director explained that the workshop was to sensitise co-operators, particularly low-income earners on how they could own houses by saving N2000 monthly with the CMB.
“The Federal Government is the financier; it is only using the CFN platform for easy access for beneficiaries.
“The Federal Government has approved N2 billion for the purpose and the idea is to make houses available and affordable to people,’’ he said.
He added that the loan could only be accessed through the mortgage bank.
Tukur announced that more than 10,000 co-operators had so far benefited from the over 300,000 units of houses across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Earlier, Mr Tajudeen Ayoola, President of CFN commended the Federal Government for the initiative.
He noted that many people would benefit from the scheme.
“We appreciate the Federal Government for this programme; we have gone to the six geographical zones to spread the importance of the programme.
“CFN has been on the lookout for this laudable partnership and we will not fail to execute it to the best interest of the nation,’’ he assured.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the scheme is a component of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Economic Sustainability Plan, to deliver affordable housing and millions of jobs for Nigerians.
Under the programme, the government had promised to construct 300,000 homes in the 36 states and FCT.