The Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria (MBAN), have began their 21st Annual Conference at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, with the theme “Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships in Mortgage Banking to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals.”
The event on day 2, saw the Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Bank, Shehu Usman Osidi, highlighting the transformative role of technology in reshaping mortgage banking in Nigeria.
While giving an insightful presentation, titled “Leveraging Technology in Customer Service Delivery: Enhancing Value and Efficiency in Mortgage Banking through the FMBN,” the MD/CE outlined the Bank’s recognition of the centricity of customers, whom he categorised beyond contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF), to include agency-customers such as Primary Mortgage Banks, regulators and stakeholders that depend on FMBN for some form of service or the other.
Osidi pinpointed initiatives such as the deployment of a Core Banking Application to streamline loan origination, underwriting, servicing, and foreclosure management processes at the Bank.
The trend, the MD noted, would facilitate seamless operations for the bank’s National Housing Fund contributors and other stakeholders. He highlighted how various countries have leveraged technology to advance mortgage banking, citing examples like Singapore’s highly digitized ecosystem with platforms for property searches, e-signatures, and quick loan approvals.
He maintained that, countries like Mexico and South Africa focus on financial inclusion through tailored loan products and advanced credit scoring models, while Kenya employs mobile technology, such as M-Pesa, to extend mortgage services to rural populations. These global examples, he affirmed, offer lessons for Nigeria, which has already pioneered innovations like the NIBSS Instant Payments system, revolutionizing real-time money transfers since 2011.
He also underscored the importance of collaborations with PropTech and FinTech companies to drive innovation and market growth, noting PropTechs are more flexible and adaptive to play in and across the housing market since they do not contend with the burden of regulation like traditional real estate players and mortgage institutions.
According to Osidi, “these crop of new players in the real estate sector serve as a wake-up call for us, the ‘traditional players’ to equally rapidly adopt technology, but more importantly, pursue business opportunities by way of collaboration and partnerships with FinTechs and PropTechs going forward.”
