The Senate on Tuesday urged the Federal Mortage Bank to go after all loan defaulters in the country.
The call was made by the upper chamber’s Ad Hoc Committee on Alleged Misuse, Under Remittance and Other Fraudulent Activities in Collection, Accounting, Remittance and Expenditure of Internally Generated Revenue by Agencies of Government.
The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Solomon Adeola, in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr Kayode Odunaro, on Tuesday said the bank must go after all defaulters.
Adeola said it was regrettable that the bank, with private sector investments, would continue to record losses yearly while billions of its funds were with people who supposedly got loans for property development.
“From the records before us from the bank, it recorded losses amounting to N48 billion between 2012 and 2016. This is not acceptable for an agency that should generate revenue for the government,” he said.
The senator urged the Managing Director of the bank, Mr Ahmed Dangiwa, to use everything within his disposal to ensure that debtors fulfilled their obligations to reduce the huge losses being recorded by the bank.
Dangiwa explained that the bank could not remit any revenue as it had been running on losses over the years.
He added that most of the funds of the bank were trapped in unpaid loans as many did not pay a dime since they got the facility.
The statement noted that Adeola, in a related development, frowned at the ‘paltry’ sum of N108 million remitted by the Federal Fire Service of Nigeria to the Federation Account in five years.
He said that amount which was from nationwide revenue sources, including Fire Safety Certificates, Permits, Fire Safety Codes, was meagre.
He said the committee would find out from the Accountant-General of the Federation if the amount was remitted by the service.