Kaduna state Governor, Nasiru Ahmed El-Rufa’i said the housing deficit in Nigeria will be addressed if the country has a National Mortgage Policy in Place.
Speaking with journalists in Gombe, Northeast Nigeria, after the inauguration and unveiling of the Shongo Gardens Layout, Flag-off Construction of 550 Housing Units and the Commissioning of the Gombe Geographic Information Systems, GOGIS Service Centre, Governor El-Rufa’i said the policy was needed, where the government could develop a payment plan to enable Nigerians to pay in instalment and at very low-interest rates.
According to Governor El-Rufa’i, the incoming President of Nigeria, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had already promised to come up with a National Housing System, which would have a single-digit interest, to enable people to afford them at low-interest rates.
“It is not impossible to do. I did it in the FCT when we sold 32 thousand Government Houses in the FCT. We had to design a mortgage system, but it only worked in the FCT. It was not scaled up nationally. I think the time has now come to scale it up nationally,” Governor El-Rufa’i said.
He said such a system would encourage builders to build more in that regard, knowing that they would get the value for their money and bridge the 18 million housing deficit in the country.
