FG Starts Scheme To Give Out 10, 000 Houses

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of
Finance on Thursday announced that the
Federal Government has officially started the
first phase of its 10,000 housing units under
the Affordable Home Ownership Scheme.

The minister while speaking with Punch
correspondent at the inauguration of the
scheme in Abuja revealed that the project
will be handled by the newly established
Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company.
She said the project will avail Nigerians the
opportunity to own their own houses at a
very affordable rates, adding that even low
income earners would be allowed to own
their houses under a flexible payment
package.
The Minister of Finance pointed out that
through this scheme, the process of owning
houses had been simplified unlike in the past
when it was difficult for Nigerians to own
their houses through affordable mortgages.
Okonjo-Iweala further revealed that under
the new structure, the processing time for
application for the mass housing project had
been reduced from between six and 18
months to just six weeks. She expressed
optimism that with the inauguration of the
NMRC in January and its successive take off
in June, the bottleneck in getting finance to
develop accessible and affordable housing in
the country had been removed.
“We want Nigerians to own their houses at
affordable costs. The NMRC’s mission is to
provide long-term funding for the housing
sector. Since the ability of banks in providing
mortgages is limited by the fact that 80 per
cent of all the deposits are on 30-day period,
which does not ensure great level of
sustainability in providing resources for the
housing sector, the NMRC is here to ensure
greater access to financing of up to 10 to 15
years. So, instead of people not being able to
own houses as they would have to pay up in
12 or 18 months; we are changing that now
so that for 10 to 15 years, people can be
able to pay for their own houses” she said.
However, it was gathered that under the
scheme, a unit of two-bedroom apartment
might be sold for between N4.5m and
N7.5m, depending on the location; while the
three-bedroom apartment would be sold
from N8m.