NMRC, Kaduna Sign N3bn Mortgage Pact
The Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company has signed an agreement with the Kaduna State Government and Federal Housing Authority Mortgage Bank to create affordable mortgages in the state.
The agreement, known as Mortgage Blended Initiative, is aimed at mortgage creation and refinancing at single-digit interest rate with an initial investment of N3bn.
The signing event which took place at the Kaduna State Government House was part of an ongoing drive to create an enabling environment for affordable housing development and mortgage creation in Nigeria, the NMRC said in a statement.
The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, after signing the agreement was quoted to have commended the participating institutions for agreeing to work with the state in establishing the blended rate programme.
According to him, the state has gone further to enact the landlord and tenant law that encourages, empowers and protects property owners and investors, in addition to the creation of a mortgage and foreclosure authority.
The governor said the state had also passed into law the mortgage and foreclosure law.
The Senior Special Adviser and Counsellor to the state governor, Mr Jimi Lawal, was quoted to have said the creation of the initiative was premised on Kaduna State’s successful strides in driving institutional and policy reforms to enable investment in housing finance.
The Managing Director of the NMRC, Mr Kehinde Ogundimu, stated that Kaduna State was at the forefront of housing finance transformation and was a model state in terms of ease of doing business and mortgage friendliness.
He said the creation of the blended financing initiative represented the NMRC’s value preposition under the World Bank’s sponsored housing finance strategy aimed at removing barriers to housing finance.
He added that it was also aimed at promoting the creation of an enabling environment for housing development and mortgage creation across the states in Nigeria through the adoption and passage of the NMRC’s proposed Model Mortgage Foreclosure Law.
