By Musa Adamu, Esq
According to some data Nigeria housing deficit now stands at 28 million- it could be well more than that depending on one’s source of data, but definitely, not less.
As a government, the Renewed Hope of President Tinubu has through the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mahmuda Mamman, articulated its policy thrust on how it intends to address this challenge in the country.
Speaking at the 12th meeting of the National Council on Housing and Urban Development in Kaduna last year, where he revealed the government plans to assist vulnerable Nigerians to own houses.
To bring this into fruition, the government would look to the direction of the entities such as the FMBN and to ensure that the trust is well placed, the premier housing enabler in the country has to be manned or led by a technocrat with proven hands-on experiences.
To foot this bill, the government knew it needed that guy seasoned enough to navigate the delicate industry with minimal or no supervision at all to deliver on the mandate.
The employee must not be that who should first learn on the job. There won’t be enough time for that.
This explains the euphoria generated by the announcement on Thursday, February 15th, 2024 of the approval of the appointment of Shehu Usman Osidi to the position of the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Mortgage Bank (FMBN) by President Bola Tinubu.
THE MAN OSIDI:
Before joining FMBN in 2010 as Assistant General Manager, Osidi had been in the banking industry since 1990 having cut his teeth at the now defunct Lion Bank of Nigeria, PLC (1990- 2005).
He moved to the Diamond Bank Plc (2005 to 2006), Intercontinental Bank Plc (2006 to 2007) and Afribank Nigeria Plc (2007 to 2010).
Osidi voluntarily retired from the services of the FMBN on 4th September, 2023 as a General Manager (GM) to take up a Political Appointment as SA, Housing/Chief of Staff to the Honourable Minister of Housing & Urban Development, only to be plucked back as the head of the Bank to help drive the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President in the provision of housing to Nigerians.
Born in 1965 in the rural setting of Shafa Abakpa (Sofiyo), Toto Local Government Area of Nasarawa state, Osidi holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the prestigious Bayero University, Kano in 2002.
He is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (ACIPM); a full Member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (MNIM), an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (HCIB); a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration (FICA) and a Certified National Accountant (CNA).
Osidi is also an alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Boston, USA as well as the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
HIS EXPLOITS/ FEATS WHILE AT FMBN:
As SA to the MD/CEO, Fed Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (2017 to 2022), he spearheaded the development and implementation of a 6-point Agenda for the new Management which assumed duty in April 2017, namely;
Promotion of sound Corporate Governance culture to ensure transparency and accountability;
Implementation of a robust Enterprise-wide Risk Management Framework;
Completion of on-going projects and creation of mortgages on the related housing units;
Aggressive Debt Recovery;
Cost-Containment;
Automation of the Bank’s Business Process.
It is worth mentioning that the implementation of the 6-points Agenda of the then MD/CEO led to the following results:
Preparation and updating of the Bank’s Annual Accounts which were in unacceptable arrears since 2013.
The efforts led to the clearance of the arrears and submission of the Accounts for 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016 and 2017. The Bank’s Accounts are now up to date.
Micro-management and completion of abandoned projects as a result of which 9 out of 26 such projects were redeemed and transferred from “lost” accounts to “active” accounts.
Deployment of a comprehensive Enterprise-wide Risk Management Framework to reduce the incidence of high Non-performing loan portfolio
Creation of additional mortgages of N5,398.
Creation of additional housing stock of 14,339 units.
Issuance of N9.5 billion Bankable Offtakers guarantee.
Reduction of equity contribution from 30% to 10% for loans of between N5m and N15m; and 0% for loans below N5 million, in order to enhance affordability and make homeownership more accessible to Nigerians.
Automation of the Bank’s processes through the deployment of Oracle 12c as well as the Core Banking Application software after approval by the Federal Executive Council.
In the same vein, Osidi as Group Head, Special Products, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (2012 to 2017), spearheaded the following campaigns and made gains:
He led the team which drove the Bank’s desire for financial inclusion.
He developed the Cooperative Housing Development Loan product which was intended to bring the Informal Sector into the housing finance system.
This led to the delivery of 3,540 housing units to Cooperative Societies across the country vide the disbursement of N22.082 billion.
In order to further deepen FMBN’s market reach, he initiated the introduction of new products to address the needs of specific market segments.
Three (3) new products were his brain child in this regard, namely; The FMBN Home Renovation Loan, the Rent-to-Own, and the Nigerians in the Diaspora NHF Mortgage loan products.
While the Home Renovation loan was to facilitate access for Nigerians wishing to renovate their houses or completing same if they have built to some stage, the Rent to Own Scheme was to obviate the need for payment of equity which was a major challenge for Nigerians wishing to access mortgage loans.
The idea was to have them move into the houses as tenants while making payments towards ultimate ownership of the houses.
The Diaspora NHF Scheme on the other hand is to give Nigerians in the Diaspora opportunity to access mortgages and own houses back home while at the same time giving the Bank an opportunity to harvest diaspora remittances (in excess of $20 billion annually) to assist Government efforts towards housing development in Nigeria.
The Home Renovation and Rent to Own loan windows have achieved a total disbursement of N80.1billion to 77,575 beneficiaries and N1.14 billion to 76 beneficiaries respectively.
The Diaspora Housing Loan Scheme is awaiting CBN final approval for implementation.
He chaired the Committee which worked with other stakeholders to also develop a Rent to Own product paper under the Bank’s newly opened non-interest banking window.
This paper has been approved by the Board is now at the stage of implementation.
He initiated the development and implementation of the Housing Development for Nigerian Workers under the National Affordable Housing Development Scheme, which was a collaboration with the Labour Centers, namely; the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC); the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA).
This initiative led to the delivery of 1,800 houses across 16 States of the Federation in its first phase of implementation.
The second phase is to cover the remaining States.
In 2018/2019, he led the Bank’s “Think Tank” which was saddled with the responsibility of suggesting amendments to the FMBN and NHF Acts and engaging the National Assembly towards conducting Public Hearing and effecting those amendments.
The feat was successfully achieved under his leadership after constructive engagement with the National Assembly, with the passage of the Bills by the two chambers of the National Assembly which contained robust amendments that will help to revamp the housing sector in Nigeria. Only the Presidential Accent remains to be obtained.
Not a stranger to delivering results when given a job, before his appointment to the present position, as SA to the Honourable Minister of Housing & Urban Development, Osidi had successfully led a Team to develop the Honourable Minister’s blueprint to align with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and Action Plan for housing under the Minister’s strategic actionable themes as follows:
Establishment of a credible, scientific and reliable housing data for planning and policy formulation;
Boosting institutional capacity of Agencies under the Ministry to deliver the Renewed Hope Vision for Housing;
Increasing supply of affordable housing;
Framework for implementing historic Land Reforms;
Establishing the National Social Housing Fund;
Establishing a building materials hub in each of the six geopolitical zones of the country;
HONOURS/ RECOGNITIONS:
While at Afribank Plc, he won award as the Most Outstanding Branch Manager for Abuja Region in 2009.
COURSES/ TRAININGS ATTENDED:
Osidi has so far attended the following courses, both locally and internationally, to wit:
1) Accessing Global & Financial Resources for Mass Housing, (Ashford & Mcguire Consulting) London, UK (2011);
2) Global Best Practices in Public Finance Management (J. K. Consulting Ltd) Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2012);
3) Workshop on Implementation of International Financial and Reporting Standard – IFRS (Fina Quest Training Ltd), London, UK (2013);
4) International Executive Communication/Project Management Workshop (Channelkoos Media Consult Ltd) Las Vegas, USA (2014);
5) Leadership Decision-Making: Optimizing Organizational Performance, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA (2014);
6) Conference on Diaspora Mortgages – Tour to New York and Maryland, USA and Paper presentation to Nigerians in the Diaspora, Office of Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Washington DC, USA (2014);
7) International Housing Finance Course, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA (2014);
8) Study Tour on Diaspora Mortgages to Ghana Home Loans, Accra Ghana (2015);
9) Annual General Meeting/Conference of Shelter Afrique, Kigali, Rwanda (2015);
10) African Union for Housing Finance Conference, Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire (2018);
11) Annual Investment Summit, Dubai, UAE (2019);
12) Conference on Diaspora Investment Opportunities in Nigeria, London, UK (2019);
13) Annual General Assembly of Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI), Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (2019);
14) Investment Opportunities for Housing Finance in Nigeria, Moscow, Russia (2019);
15) Annual General Meeting, African Union for Housing Finance (AUHF), Cape Town, South Africa (2019).
HOBBIES/ FAMILY:
The new MD/ CEO hobbies include reading, travelling and playing badminton. He is happily married with children.
Adamu wrote in from Keffi- Nasarawa state.
