NMRC Partners World Bank on Electronic Mortgage Registry

The Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company says it has partnered with the World Bank to conduct a study on the development of the Electronic Mortgage Assets Registry System.

The Chief Executive Officer of NMRC, Kehinde Ogundimu, disclosed this at the company’s annual general meeting in Lagos on Wednesday.

He said the registry system would provide “timely and reliable access to land, public access to data about mortgage assets and facilitate due diligence for mortgage transactions.”

Ogundimu said that although the economic environment was harsh for the year ended December 31, 2020, the company was able to turn in decent financial results.

He revealed that total assets of the NMRC rose by 17 percent from N72.9bn in 2019 to N85.4bn in 2020.

The Chairman, Adeyemi Johnson, highlighted the NMRC’s overall performance for the year 2020 saying that while the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the sector negatively, the company was still able to post a profit.

He said, “The slowdown of the economy resulted in job losses and default on mortgage obligations. Our investment income also came under pressure with a historic decrease in interest rates.

“Despite these challenges, profit before income tax decreased marginally from N3.1bn in 2019 to N3.04bn in 2020.”

The company also announced the approval of payment of dividends of N871.4m at 41 kobo per share of 2.12 billion shares issued.

The meeting also saw the re-election of three retiring directors, namely Mr Razack Adeola, Mr Uche Orji, and Dr. Herbert Wigwe, in line with Section 285 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020.