The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) on Monday inaugurated seven specialised task teams to recover all the bank’s Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) nationwide.

While inaugurating the teams in Abuja, Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of the bank, Shehu Osidi, said the move was to reduce non-performing loans.

Osidi said the move became expedient to safeguard the bank’s financial interests and sustain its lending operations.

He said that over the years, FMBN had played a crucial role in providing affordable housing finance to Nigerians, hence contributing significantly to advancing the national housing agenda and promoting the home ownership scheme.

“However, the sustainability of these efforts hinges on our ability to recover loans effectively and reinvest them in future projects; unfortunately, the bank has performed poorly in this regard.

“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.

“Regardless of the successes recorded in our home delivery efforts, we must acknowledge the enormous challenges we face with our non-performing loans.

“While some of the non-performing loans 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.’’

Osidi said henceforth, staff would be held accountable for the outcome of credit decisions over which they had played critical roles.

 He said the strategy adopted by FMBN in the loan recovery endeavour was to follow a different path by challenging, “ourselves to deliver tangible results in pursuance and defense of our common destiny.

“The inauguration of these task teams marks a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to enhance the financial stability and operational efficiency of the bank,’’ he said.

Osidi added that part of the assignment of the task teams includes conducting desk reviews of assigned loan portfolios, including the history of loans, houses available, state of collaterals, outstanding balances, and personalities behind the loans.

He explained that the teams are expected to look at the segmentation of the loans and the chances of recovery, develop an overreaching recovery strategy, engage relevant stakeholders, and use both conventional and informal, but acceptable strategies to carry out the recoveries.

He said in case the teams resorted to security agencies or the court, such action should not be made without the Executive Management’s approval.

Osidi observed that the team will be required to render regular updates and progress reports to the executive management and monitor and track the progress of debt recovery efforts.

He added that they will also implement measures aimed at preventing NPLs, developing risk mitigation strategies, and enhancing the credit assessment process, among others.

He said the teams were segmented along geo-political zones and each team would handle all delinquent loans within its jurisdiction.

He said Team One (FCT) would be led by Dr Kabir  Yagboyaju as Chairman, Mr Jibo Ibrahim Chairman of Team Two (North-West), TLG Elayo, Chairman of Team Three (North-Central), and Mr Gbenga Babade, Chairman of Team Four (South-West).

Others included: Ms Oby Nwokedi, Chairperson of Team Five (South-East), Mr Nafada Ibrahim, Chairman of Team Six (North-East,); and Ms Felicia Aningo, Chairperson of Team Seven (South-South).

“Speed is of the essence because each team has only 10 weeks to complete this assignment and deliver results.

“That is two weeks for desk review and eight weeks for the assignment,” he said.

Ms Chinenye Anosike, Executive Director, Business Development and Portfolio Management, FMBN, congratulated the members of the task teams.

She told the teams that they were carefully selected to deliver on the mandate.

Anosike, therefore, urged them not to pay lip service to the loan recovery task but to work hard and use their expertise to deliver good results within the expected timeframe.

Mr Muhammed Abdu, Executive Director, Loans and Mortgage Services, FMBN, said the loan recovery task given to the teams was an onerous responsibility and an epoch-making exercise aimed at reinventing the growth, development, and future of the bank.

Abdu then assured the bank’s management of the team’s commitment to working in synergy, to be selfless, objective, time-conscious, and passionate about the job, to make the bank very proud and bigger at the end of the day. (NAN)