Head, National Housing Finance Programme (NHFP) Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Adedeji Adesemoye, has urged state governments to adopt the Model Mortgage Foreclosure Law (MMFL).
Adesemoye made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at the 2019 Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria (REDAN) Building Expo tagged: `Real Estate Development, the Bedrock for National Economic Stability’.
The MMFL is an initiative of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), which calls for the creation of a State Mortgage Board as a single window to facilitate access to affordable mortgages to citizens.
The initiative is in furtherance to the mandate of promoting legislative reforms to improve processes in land administration towards creating an enabling environment for mortgage origination in the country.
Adesemoye expressed satisfaction that Lagos and Kaduna states had adopted versions of the law in 2010 and 2017, respectively.
“The new law has brought uniformity as well as clarity to disparate laws on the subject of mortgages as only one law now governs the creation and perfection of mortgages as opposed to the multiplicity of laws,” he said.
He listed other states that were committed to the passage of MMFL as Ogun, Osun, Kebbi, Plateau and Edo states, stressing on the need for others yet to comply to do so.
Adesemoye recalled that a team of six senior advocates of Nigeria was selected to develop the draft MMFL in order to address some mortgage challenges in the country.
In his presentation `Incentivising Housing Development Through Access to Housing Finance and Guarantee Schemes – National Housing Finance Programme’, Adesemoye listed some challenges facing access to mortgages in the country.
They include multiplicity of laws governing mortgages in different states as well as difficulties and delays in perfection of mortgages due to consent requirement of Land Use Act 1978.
Others are inherent difficulties and delays in the exercise of judiciary-driven enforcement rights, such as foreclosures and exorbitant cost of creation and perfection of mortgages.
He recalled that in 2018, a workshop was conducted for state Attorney Generals, lawmakers and commissioners for housing to advocate for the adoption of MMFL by all states of the federation.
He said a similar workshop, which focused on the role of the court in quick resolution of mortgage matters, was also held in 2017 in conjunction with National Judicial Institute
The advocacy for its adoption would be done by joint task force with Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN), REDAN, CBN, NMRC, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and the Governors Forum.
NHFP is an initiative of the Federal Government and supported by the World Bank with an International Development Association (IDA) loan of 300 million dollars.
The programme, which became effective in 2014, is being implemented by CBN to increase access to affordable housing finance.
