The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has disclosed that over 90 million Nigerians cannot afford to live in decent accommodation due to lack of long term loan in the country.
Branch Manager, FMBN Enugu, Mr. Emeka Aroh, who disclosed this at a one-day seminar organised by a private company, Light Hill Housing Cooperative, for multipurpose cooperative societies in the South East said most Nigerian citizens lack affordable housing.
According to the bank, Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution Sect 16 (1) stipulates that Nigerians should be provided with affordable housing but Nigerians at the moment live in squalor.
He said that for Nigerians to have adequate and affordable housing, there should be long term mortgage loans.
“Long term mortgage loans have to be provided to Nigerians to be able to have affordable housing,” he said.
To make affordable housing possible, Aroh encouraged Nigerians to form cooperative groups so that they will be in a better position to access National Housing Fund (NHF) loans to be able to build their own houses.
He said that as soon as they can have titles to the lands they want to build on, they can then approach the FMBN for loans through the help of primary mortgage bank that would serve as intermediaries between them and FMBN for the NHF loan which has interest loan as low as 10 percent.
“FMBN has created an avenue where individuals can approach us to have better housing. You can do this without having equity. If you have land with a title, you can approach us for a loan to help you build your house.”
According to him, the bank has assisted in building nine estates in Enugu, four in Abia, five in Delta and one each in Ebonyi and Imo states.
Speaking on the importance of the seminar, Chairman of Light Hill Group, Leonard Ugwu said that it was to awaken the people’s consciousness on the need to form housing cooperative groups to have affordable housing.
Ugwu said Light Hill Group which is a conglomeration other groups builds affordable housing for the people.
He said that with the help of FMBN, many people can now have good and decent accommodation without having to procure all the cash at once, pointing out that it was through cooperatives that mortgage banks can give funds for housing.
Chairman of the occasion, Rowland Adiawe, of the Value Works Resources Ltd, urged Nigerians to embrace cooperative groups in order to have decent accommodation.
Adiawe described housing as a critical challenge in Nigeria, pointing out that by pooling resources through cooperatives, many can afford housing and become landlords.
“Housing is critical in Nigeria and it is a national challenge. The essence of this gathering is to know the opportunities we have to have decent accommodation. It is not the wish of any worker to be a perpetual tenant,” he said.
