Mortgage bank unveils platform for national fund

For transparency and accountability in the operations of the National Housing Fund (NHF), the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has unveiled a mobile Digital Platform that empowers contributors with real-time access to information on their NHF accounts.

The Platform is an ecosystem of innovative mobile messaging solutions integrated into a single suite and seeks to address the challenges associated with effective monitoring, management and notification of monthly National Housing Fund (NHF) contributions nationwide.

The event marked a historic milestone in FMBNs strategic plan to leverage technology and automate decades-old manual business process in order to enhance its operations.

Key components of the FMBNs mobile platform solutions suite of services include, 219# USSD Short Code, mobile Apps for Android & iOS platforms, Online Self-Service Kiosk, SMS and emails notifications

The platforms enable contributors to receive instant notifications, stay in the know of their contributions and remittances to the scheme on the go, update their records, check contributions, register and retrieve NHF numbers, request for statement of account, calculate home affordability & mortgage payment, and search for NHF related information from FMBN bulletin board service.

The systems are secured, available, reliable, easily accessible and easy to use with or without an internet connection.

According to the bank, some of the advantages of the mobile solutions include giving each NHF contributor increased access to their contributions, greater transparency, clearer disclosure and convenient access from the comforts of their homes/offices or while on the go via phone or email.

Speaking at the launch in Abuja, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa stated that the launch of the FMBN digital platform is the result of the new managements commitment to addressing in a structured manner the challenges that have bedevilled the effective implementation of the NHF scheme.

“We audited the system and discovered that most employers under remit deductions, remittance schedules of deductions are not provided, contribution records are updated and maintained in passbooks and most contributors do not know the status of their contributions. Having critically evaluated the issues, we decided to automate the process to give contributors unfettered access to the information pertaining to their contributions and the policies associated with the scheme for greater efficiency, transparency, accountability and service delivery”, he said.

The FMBN boss stated that the launch of the FMBN Digital Platforms is significant because it marks the end of over 30-year period of opaqueness in the management of NHF funds  where contributors were completely in the dark about the state of your NHF accounts. He stressed further that the introduction of the mobile digital solutions has now put the power of convenient access to information about the state of NHF accounts in the hands of contributors since they can now manage, monitor, and receive prompt/instant notifications via their mobile phones and email accounts on activities on their accounts.

Dangiwa reiterated that the new executive management of FMBN under his leadership is committed to repositioning the bank for better service delivery and will continue to leverage the power of technology to improve efficiency, transparency and enhanced service operational performance.

He advised Nigerian workers to register and contribute to the National Housing Fund, so they can enjoy access to FMBNs suite of affordable housing products such as low interest and long-term mortgage loans payable over thirty-year periods, rent-to-own scheme, home renovation loans of up to 1Million payable over 5 years and individual housing construction loans amongst several others.

FMBN Digital Platform is supported by a robust IT infrastructure and built in partnership with globally recognized data storage and IT solutions providers such as NetApp.