The Federal Government in collaboration with the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) has launched a N13 billion mortgage refinance for civil servants.
Speaking at the inauguration over the weekend in Abuja, the Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun said that, about 5,635 civil servants would be captured in the first batch.
According to her, the mortgage refinance scheme is open to local and foreign investors via the public private partnership (PPP) arrangement under the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
Elaborating on the scheme, the Minister said, “The N13 billion mortgage refinance investment commitment by the NMRC, followed on the heels of its N8 billion initial bond issuance, the proceeds of which have been fully utilised in refinancing. This should signal investors at home and abroad that there are significant opportunities in the Nigerian housing sector.”
The Minister added that, “In recognition of the importance of housing, this administration earmarked N40 billion in the 2016 budget to address housing challenges facing the country, improve the living conditions and welfare of our work-force and people, and as well generate gainful employment for our teeming youth.
Also speaking at the event, the Managing Director of SunTrust Bank, one of NMRC’s member banks, Mr. Muhammed Jibrin, congratulated the Federal Government for the mortgage re-financing initiative and also assured the Federal Civil Servants that they have a solid partner to bank on at any point in time in his bank.
He said: “We are very happy this is happening today. This is to show how sensitive and worker-friendly the present administration is. The workers are the ultimate winners in this scheme as most of them, through this scheme will transit from being tenants to landlords at a rate that will be very conducive for them”
With a vision ‘to be the dominant housing partner in Nigeria’, NMRC continues to seek such collaborations and partnerships at Federal and State levels of Government and also the private sector, to make home ownership affordable for all Nigerians.
The role of NMRC as a secondary mortgage institution is to provide the liquidity that is needed by going to the capital market and raising funds, and making those funds available to our member banks for the refinancing of their mortgage portfolio
