The Federal Mortgage Bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with housing development partners to generate funds to the tune of $2 billion for the construction of over 10,000 housing units across Nigeria.
The documents were signed on Thursday by the Managing Director of the bank, Mr Richard Esin, the Managing Director of an estate developing company, Shelter Afrique, Mr James Mugeruwa, and the President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Mr Ugo Chime.
After the signing, Mr Esin disclosed that $200 million would be disbursed annually to real estate developers to secure home ownership for Nigerians through mortgage.
“We needed to bring in Shelter Afrique to work in partnership with the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria to make available some funds over the next 10 years to give impetus to the national housing model by providing the other members with the necessary construction finance that would be required to drive the national housing model,” he explained.
The Shelter Afrique boss, on his part, highlighted the significance of the investments which he said would span for 10 years.
“The focus is not only in having housing units delivered but we also look at the secondary benefits that come out of it; job creation for the women and the youths, impact which is a core part of our strategy, environmental friendly housing (and) energy efficiency in all the thing that we do,” Mugeruwa said.
Mr Chime also stressed further on the benefits of the deal, saying: “We are now trying to build a seamless interface from construction finance to construction and to mortgage creation.
“When we reduce the timeline involved in some of these issues, it reduces the cost because one of the biggest costs is cost of the funds employed”.
