FG Sets Up Mortgage Refinance Firm

The federal government has established a mortgage company which will make it possible for many Nigerians to own their own houses at affordable rates, according to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, coordinating minister for the Economy and minister of Finance.

The company which is being promoted by the federal government with majority private sector ownership will help to address the acute housing challenge in the country; will be launched by President Goodluck Jonathan not later than September this year.

Paul Nwabuikwu, special adviser on Media to the minister quoted the minister as saying that the country’s total housing deficit stands at 17 million units and the institution was a key part of the government’s efforts to ensure that Nigerians have access to cheap mortgage funds from housing finance lenders.

Okonjo-Iweala said that the President had directed her and Ms. Ama Pepple, minister of Housing to fashion out appropriate and effective means of addressing the housing challenges in the country, adding that the result of such collaboration was the MRC.

According to her, the World Bank had already keyed in into the proposed refinance institution with a soft loan of $300 million under the bank’s International Development Association (IDA) concessionary lending window.