The Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) recorded significant increase in its profitability, which came up to N482 million in 2015 as against N160 million in 2014.

The nation’s leading and foremost mortgage Refinance Company also recorded total assets of N39.01 billion in 2015 against N10.6 billion in 2014.

This result was presented at NMRC’s 2nd Annual General Meeting in Lagos. Shareholders of the Company approved all the proposals put forward by its Board of Directors at the AGM, including the appointment of four independent Directors, Dr. Charles Okeahalam – Chairman; Mr. Charles Candide-Johnson, SAN; Dr. Anino Emuwa; and Mrs. Fatima Wali-Abdurrahman. The appointment of Mr. Adeniyi Akinlusi as a Non-Executive Director was also approved.

The Company’s Chief Executive Officer, Professor Charles Inyangete noted that as NMRC continued its journey towards greater financial strength, the main focus and long term strategy of the company was on improving mortgage penetration by growing the supply and the demand side of the housing value-chain.

Professor Inyangete also stated that despite the headwinds confronting the housing sector in Nigeria, the Company would continue to explore opportunities presented by its access to long-term funding from the Capital market to drive its mandate and ultimately reverse the widening housing deficit, while ensuring superior performance and returns to investors and stakeholders.

The Chairman of NMRC, Dr. Charles Okeahalam said there was an improvement in the performance of the company, adding “We are very pleased with the achievements of the management, led by the Chief Executive; the effort they have made in the difficult socio-economic environment Nigeria has presently. The currency has a number of values, interest rates are very high and inflation has doubled from 9% in May 2015 to almost 18% with the latest number that has come up.

According to analysts, NMRC’s profit in 2015, though higher than the previous year, could have been much higher if conforming mortgages were readily available in the market for the Company to refinance. They expect that as the mortgage market grows, the Company’s footprint would expand substantially.

The Company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Kehinde Ogundimu noted that the company was taking necessary steps to preserve and grow the organisation’s capital with a view to deepening and sustaining its core refinancing operations.

According to Dr. Femi Johnson, a Director of NMRC and President at Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria, the performance of the company was “fine, considering the economic clime we find ourselves, despite that the company made good profit, even though it is in its second year of operation. We are impressed with the performance and we are also looking at areas that require strong improvement but the overall it is a good performance.”

On the performance of NMRC, Mr. Adeniyi Akinlusi, Chief Executive of Trust Bond Mortgage Bank and a non-Executive Director of NMRC, said the it is quite notable “for an institution that started barely 18 months ago for having been able to break all the grounds, recoup all loses and make profit is quite commendable, particularly at this time in the country when we facing economic challenges.”

The said there was however room for improvement, in terms of reducing the housing deficit, saying that should be the next focus.

He said there was also the issue of having mortgages that are single-digit interest rates, even though that may be a tall order, because of present inflation of over 17 per cent, but that it is an area to be worked on.

He also talked about working on property development and on education Nigerians on the benefit of taking mortgages because of its wealth-creation benefits.