Affordable Housing, A Panacea For Curbing Corruption, Inefficiency, Says FG Housing Loan Boss

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ursuant to the Federal Government’s resolve to collaborate with other stakeholders in the housing sector to deliver 10,000 housing units this year through mortgage refinancing, the Executive Secretary, Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board, Dr. (Mrs.) Hannatu Adamu Fika has expressed her belief that providing accommodations for workers is a platform to address the twin problem of perceived corrupt practices and inefficiencies in handling government businesses. She said without public servants that are motivated to drive the policies and programmes of government, the Private Sector organizations will also be incapacitated.

She expressed the optimism when she visited the Managing Director, NMRC, Mr. Sonnie Ayere at his Abuja Office on Tuesday.

Expressing her commitment to deliver the 1,000 housing units out of the target for 2014 for the Public Servants if given the opportunity, Dr. (Mrs.) Fika said with the template of the Board which is risk free, the repayment option is made easy for the off takers and the mortgagers.

The new mortgage refinance will serve as a vehicle to actualise the dream of transformation agenda as it effects the housing sector especially for public servants, she stressed.

The Mortgage Refinance which was launched in January this year by President Goodluck Jonathan was intended to boost mortgage financing in the country for housing delivery and home ownership schemes and as well as reducing all impediments to a sustainable and dynamic housing market.

Why Mortgage Accounts For Less Than 3% Of Housing Finance In Nigeria

Chuka Uroko

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lsewhere, especially in the advanced economies of the world, housing finance is synonymous with mortgage, because in such societies, the only known way of buying and owning a home is by applying for, and accessing a mortgage facility.

In Nigeria, the story is different. This is a country where homeownership is realised almost 100 percent from own savings or through communal and co-operative efforts.

In Lagos, for instance, a city of about 18 million people where over 60 percent of this population lives in rented accommodation; unconfirmed report has it that about 86 percent of the housing stock in the city is funded from household income.

Experts have revealed that housing finance by public authorities in Nigeria is about 10 percent; mortgage banks contribute about 2 percent, while contribution from banks and other institutions is insignificant.

Nigeria’s Property Registration Among Longest, Most Expensive Globally

Chuka Uroko

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espite recent improvements and innovations in terms of technology that have been introduced in land administration in some parts of Nigeria, the whole process is still lacking in speed, convenience and relative cheapness, compared to what obtains in other parts of the world, BusinessDay investigation has revealed.

The country lags behind Ghana, South Africa, Thailand and New Zealand among others, in ease of registering property, just as its mortgage sector has the least contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at less than 1 percent.

Registering a property in Nigeria takes an average of 12 procedures, lasts nearly four  months (except in some states like Lagos, Kano and Ogun, which have improved on this) and costs about 15 percent of the property value, as against neighbouring Ghana, where it requires just  five procedures, 34 days and 1.3 percent of the property value.

Olusola Olubode, former managing director of Refuge Homes Savings and Loans Limited (mortgage bankers) says that in New Zealand, a property could be registered online in two days, at a cost of 0.1 percent of the property value.