The Acting Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria FMBN), Richard Esin, has promised to determine the actual housing deficit in Nigeria
by 2018.
Speaking at the first Enugu Housing and Real Estate Development forum organised by Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, in conjunction with Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Esin said Nigeria had no reliable statistics to backup the housing deficit in the country.
According to him the current 17 million deficits was a figure that had been in the use since but that it was not realistic. “The 17 million deficits has been one figure that has been around for a while. It is over ten years since we started hearing about it.
He said that they have already started talking with the National Population Commission so that they would be carried along when conducting the population census exercise proposed for 2018. “we will work with them to determine the housing deficit,” he said.
Esin regretted that the Nigerian mortgage system was still under-developed in driving home ownership. He said that a larger chunk of the FMBN resources would henceforth be channelled to providing mortgages for contributors who earn below 10 million naira per annum.“Our focus is now primarily with the mass target
which are the lower and medium income earners.
“If we do that there will be a profound impact in the number of people that will be able to promote home ownership in the country,” he said.
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