NMRC out with disruptive technologies to consolidate housing market

As part of its efforts at strengthening the Nigerian mortgage system and also catalysing growth in the housing market, the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) has fashioned out innovative and disruptive technologies aimed at consolidating Nigeria’s fragmented housing market.
Known as Mortgage Market System (MMS) and Housing Market Information Portal (HMIP), these technologies are also aimed to position NMRC to unlock value driven by data and technology, given that data is considered the next frontier for value creation in business globally.
Charles Inyangete, NMRC’s CEO, who gave these hints at the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) US and Africa Business Summit in Washington DC recently, had at the launch of these technologies in Lagos, Nigeria, explained that MMS was not just about mortgage but also the entire housing finance that would allow the company to see the pipeline projects and know who was bringing what to the market as well as the refinancers.
The HMIP, he added, was aimed to enable the company to gather data for intelligence and profiling of federal, states civil servants and informal sectors (off-takers) for affordable housing.
He noted at summit that despite the significant strides in technology that have enabled Africa to leapfrog traditional financial development, growth was still stifled by challenges that include policy and infrastructure. He quoted The Economist which, in 2014, described Africa as “the continent of missing data”, saying, “this underlines the need for data to drive evidence-based decisions by businesses, investors, and policy makers amongst others”.
“Though the summit unveiled opportunities that showed technology was being leveraged for a wide range of solutions like mobile money in Kenya and other rural parts of Africa, there are still risks and challenges like regulatory risks, low level financial literacy, and the need to make digital payment superior to cash on the continent”, he said.
As the leading US business association solely focused on the US and Africa trade and investment, the sessions at CCA’s biennia event—the US and Africa Business Summit—primarily featured private sector solutions and how public-sector actors could support business through the provision of an enabling environment.
The 2017 Summit focused on ‘America’s Stake in Africa’ and aimed to shape and promote effective US-Africa trade and investment policies. More than 140 speakers including leading private sector executives across CCA’s core sectors discussed challenges and opportunities related to the theme of the conference. The speakers included Wilbur Ross, US Secretary of Commerce, President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, and Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Adesina, who described himself as “Africa’s Optimist-In-Chief”, emphasized the need for Africa to move to an investment mindset. He explained that Africa needed to move from aid-based to investment based development mindset and re-iterated that, in 2016, the economies of, at least, 12 African countries grew at higher than 5 percent attracting $56 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Inyangete highlighted how data and lack of qualitative information was impacting the US and Africa investment relationship. The sessions on ICT presented a fine moment for him to contribute to the discussion on “Expanding Digital Financial Inclusion and Data: How Information Will Transform Business in Africa”. It was projected at the session that about 168 million people will become connected in Africa in the next five years and the bulk of them will be in Nigeria.

CHUKA UROKO