To order to enhance affordable mortgage finance in the country, the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) has tasked the Federal and State Governments on the need to address the cost of funding to enable it borrows money below 10 per cent interest rate from the market.
Besides, the company’s Managing Director, Mr Kehinde Ogundimu, urged the authorities to put in place better systems to ensure ease in legal documentation processes including faster registration and transfer of land titles.
These, he said were ways the state and the federal government could better support the company.
Speaking at a stakeholders engagement with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) organised by the Housing Development Advocacy Network anchored by its Executive Director, Festus Adebayo in Abuja, Ogundimu disclosed that NMRC has disbursed about N30 billion so far in mortgage loan portfolios of commercial and mortgage banks in the country.
According to him, the funds’ disbursement has helped in removing barriers to homeownership, which have implications on the prosperity of communities.
Ogundimu reiterated the company’s commitment to boosting the liquidity positions of mortgage lending institutions, saying the company has made progress by increasing access to affordable housing finance in the mortgage industry.
On the company’s national reach, he noted that NMRC has worked with some states such as Nasarawa, Ekiti, and Ogun States.
He assured Nigerians that they are working with other states including Delta to boost homeownership and reduce housing deficit in the country.
In Ogun State, Ogundimu noted that Gateway Mortgage Bank was already reaping the benefits of being an investor in NMRC, adding that apart from the benefits, the company’s team had pledged its readiness in providing refinancing and technical support to Ogun and other state governments in support of affordable housing development and ownership plans.
According to him, passage of the foreclosure law has proven its capacity to increase the ongoing housing intervention in states as many civil servants are now becoming homeowners.
Ogundimu emphasised the company’s efforts with other stakeholders in the industry to leverage technology towards integrating the housing value chain that has produced groundbreaking industry applications such as the Mortgage Market Management System (MMS) and the Housing Market Information Portal (HMIP).
According to him, NMRC is ready to partner with more stakeholders to ensure that enough data is gathered and imputed on the portal to further enhance the capacity to improve housing in Nigeria in the next few months.
On foreign loans, Ogundimu said the major challenge bothered on who would bear the currency risk, stating that the way out would be through currency hedges.
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This approach, he said could be done by approaching the Central Bank of Nigeria in order to ease the process and make mortgages affordable.
He added that it would take NMRC about 48 hours to refinance.
Meanwhile, the NMRC boss promised that the company would not go to sleep until Nigerians begin to sing songs of praises dangling their house keys that they have become homeowners.
Recall that the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) was licensed on February 18, 2015 to promote the delivery of affordable housing to Nigerians focusing on the key role of mortgage refinancing.
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