10,000 houses, 150,000 jobs coming as FMBN seals $2bn pact with Shelter Afrique

All things being e qual, the Nigerian property market will be receiving 1,000 housing units annually for the next 10 years following a $2 billion pact signed recently by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Company for Habitat in Africa (Shelter Afrique) and the Real Estate Association of Nigeria (REDAN) aimed to bridge the housing deficit in the country estimated at 17 million units.

Expectation is that the investment of this amount of money which translates to $200 million annually will generate about 150,000 direct and indirect jobs for both skilled and unskilled labour in the country.

FMBN says it has developed a national housing model and sought the collaboration of Shelter Afrique and REDAN to provide 10,000 housing units in the next 10 years.

“We decided to bring in Shelter Afrique to work in partnership with REDAN to make available some funds over the next 10 years by providing REDAN members with construction finance required to drive the national housing model”, said Richard Esin, FMBN’s acting managing director who spoke at the signing event in Abuja.

Continuing, he said, “on the part of FMBN, since we have agreed on the housing design and pricing, it will then be our responsibility to give confidence to the understanding by committing to providing the mortgage finance that will off-take the provider of the construction finance that will be required. On that basis, we had the understanding that the Nigerian market will not require anything less than $200million annually over the next 10 years.

With $200 million injected into financing construction annually, it is hoped that 10,000 housing units would be generated and if added to other intervention schemes, over 20,000 housing units would be delivered annually.

James Mugerwa, managing director/CEO of Shelter Afrique, noted that the pact was significant as the housing sector has gained increasing prominence in the national development agenda of Nigeria, assuring that his corporation would renew strategic alliance with REDAN and FMBN.

“Shelter Afrique, being a pan-African development financial institution that has existed for over three decades has acquired substantial operational experience and established itself as a credible housing finance institution”, he said.

Ugochukwu Chime, national president of REDAN, said it was gratifying that the FMBN was reaching out to other stakeholders in its bid to close the housing gap, noting that previous efforts by the bank were done in isolation of critical stakeholders while the housing deficit which is huge required concerted efforts.

CHUKA UROKO