February 7th, 2020.
The Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company PLC (NMRC) has secured the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to expand its refinancing activities to all mortgage and commercial banks in Nigeria.
It is expected that the extension of refinancing to all banks, not necessarily that are not Shareholders of NMRC will deepen the company’s housing market development activities and stimulate increased access to affordable housing finance.
Under the new guidance, any financial institution with mortgage portfolios that conform to NMRC’s Uniform Underwriting Standards (UUS) qualify for NMRC refinancing.
The move is in alignment with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s long-term strategy to promote and deepen Nigeria’s housing and mortgage markets. The expansion of refinancing will provide banks and the financial system at large with access to affordable long-term liquidity that NMRC raises from the Debt Capital Market, boost their financial positions thereby enhancing their capacity to create new and more affordable mortgage products with 15-25-year tenor.
In his remarks, the MD/CEO NMRC, Mr. Kehinde Ogundimu said the push to include other financial players in the mortgage space under the NMRC refinancing operations reflects the dynamic and measured urgency with which the company takes the execution of its mandate to deepen access to affordable housing and help fix the worrying housing deficit.
“NMRC remains committed to taking strategic actions that have the potential to help achieve our goal of increasing access to affordable housing finance. We are, indeed, excited to work with all Banks to enhance their mortgage originations capacity and make bigger impact. We hope the Banks will see the benefits that partnering with NMRC will bring to their operations and adopt our carefully designed uniform underwriting standards. Overall, this will bring more integration and efficiency into the housing finance market” Mr. Kehinde Ogundimu.
