CBN Governor Rallies Support for Housing Finance Programme

• CBN Governor Rallies Support for Housing Finance Programme

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has urged the Nigerian media to effectively communicate and educate Nigerians on how they could key into the Nigerian Housing Finance Programme (NHFP) to access finance for affordable housing in the country.

The CBN Governor stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during the launch of the Mascot of the NHFP, a Public Private Partnership (PPP)– designed to improve access to affordable housing finance in Nigeria.

Emefiele, who was represented by the Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, Mrs. Tokunbo Martins, said that the mass literacy campaign of the project was being driven by the PPP stakeholders in the Nigerian housing industry with the support of the regulator.

“Everything you have learnt and discussed today should contribute to the actualisation of this philosophy through the effective communication of NHFP and its possibilities to your readers and the general public,” Emefiele told journalists at the event.

‘’The mass literacy campaign is driven by a public private partnership effort of the stakeholders within the technical assistance components of the NHFP to increase our public awareness—-that is accessible and affordable house/home finance programme which is available through micro finance banks and mortgage banks as mortgage loans that will be eligible for refinance through the Nigerian Finance mortgage Company (NFMC) and also that micro financing is available through micro finance banks.’’

The CBN Governor stated that certain people had become successful house owners already through the process and that nobody would be excluded from applying.

He added: “The Nigerian housing industry has come together in the campaign—with a single minded purpose of effecting the rapid provision of the most affordable houses to those in our population who may be unaware of their rights and responsibilities or may not have been able to learn how to move forward.”

He also said that stakeholders through their collaborative efforts will commence the process of changing the Nigerian housing market from that of “supply driven” to that of “demand driven”, where every house built will have an already willing and able buyer waiting to purchase it.

“Industry stakeholders through this collaborative effort will commence the process of moving our housing system from a supply driven market to a demand driven one and ensuring that no home will be built without a ready willing and able buyer waiting to purchase it,” Emefiele further added.

“This whole campaign consists of two basic messages: Providing awareness and education to help intending home owners prepare for a home buying process, and educating and encouraging home buyers to understand their responsibilities to pay their loans in a timely manner according to their terms of mortgage agreement.

“If you can effectively communicate these two messages to our people, this campaign has successfully achieved its goal. This is the simple message of my own home campaign. We ask you to help us disseminate the information properly and effectively to every single citizen of Nigeria.”

On her part, the National Coordinator of the project, Adenike Fasanya Osilaja, stated that the aim of the media chat was to create awareness among Nigerians to have access to mortgage financing for their own homes by applying for loans within their means; stop paying rent and become landlords.

She said they can do this after going to their banks to ask questions and know how they can go about and finance their mortgages and must have agreed to the terms and conditions of the mortgage institution.