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Jonathan inaugurates mortgage firm to tackle housing deficit

By on January 19, 2014

Jonathan on Thursday inaugurated the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company Plc and spoke of his administration’s determination to tackle the housing deficit in the country.

The public-private initiative is meant to bridge the financing gap in home ownership in the country.

Speaking during the inauguration of the company held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Jonathan called for the computerisation of land registries in the country as a means of assisting in land administration.

He said the development would reduce the cost of house construction and sale by private developers.

The President also advised state governors to consider delegating the granting of consent on subsequent transactions on landed property to subordinates in order to speed up the process of land acquisition and transfer.

He said his administration was working round the clock to create a stable macroeconomic environment and it lowered inflation rate from 12 per cent to eight per cent last year as well as reduced all impediments to a sustainable and dynamic housing market.

“The housing sector is known worldwide as an avenue for job creation and economic stability; that is why we are focused on the sector and the concrete action we have taken in alleviating the major constraints to its rapid development,” Jonathan said.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said tackling the housing deficit was key to economic growth.

She noted that it would take three to four months for the company to start operations, adding that the government expected that by the end of June, Nigerians would begin to access mortgage loans from the NMRC.

The supervising Minister of Land, Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Muhammed Sada, attributed the 17 million housing deficit to lack of proper financing of the sector over a long period of time.

The inauguration of the NMRC also featured the signing of two major agreements between the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development and Shelter Afrique, and a subsidiary agreement among the Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria and the World Bank.

 

 

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