The Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC), Federal Mortgage Bank (FMBN) and Family Homes Funds (FHF) are significant institutions in the drive towards affordable housing provision in Nigeria. Though saddled with distinct responsibilities, they are primarily set up for a singular objective, as already mentioned – affordable housing.
It is the believe of many stakeholders that one of the most important things necessary for scaling housing supply in Nigeria is for established institutions to collaborate more, learn from each other’s experiences and adapt to existential challenges.
The NMRC is a private sector-driven mortgage refinancing company with the public purpose of promoting home ownership for Nigerians while deepening the primary and secondary mortgage markets. Its vision is to be the dominant housing partner in Nigeria, with a mission to break down barriers to home ownership by providing liquidity, affordability, accessibility and stability to the housing market in Nigeria. FMBN is equally tasked with the responsibility of supplying the mortgage markets with sustainable liquidity for the advancement of home ownership among Nigerians anchored on mortgage financing. The Family Homes Funds is a federal government social housing scheme that invests in the structures to create the conditions for low to middle income earning families to secure their own homes and create jobs for hardworking Nigerians.
It is obvious that the three bodies perform very important roles for the development of Nigeria’s housing sector, and it is only right for them to identify urgent areas of cooperation and work on them. Of course this is already going on, but for the kind of housing deficit that we have in Nigeria, there is need for more synergy.
The Family Homes Funds has developed and continues to develop multiple affordable housing projects across the country, and has in the process collated a lot of data which it should make available to NMRC whom has on its own developed a Mortgage Market Information Portal (MMIP). NMRC has been in the forefront of driving housing market intelligence as a key area of activity and focus, and any collaboration from FHF and FMBN in this area will go a long way to deepen the data pool and aid project execution.
The NMRC MMIP portal is a decision-making tool that supports the growth of affordable housing and housing finance markets in Nigeria. The NMRC MMIP, is currently the repository for the National Real Estate Data Collation Programme making it a primal point of call for industry stakeholders seeking relevant and timely data on Nigeria’s housing sector.
There is a mismatch between the demand for housing and its supply in Nigeria. The demand out-weight the meagre supply, and the only way to meet demand with commensurate supply is for the stakeholders responding for the supply side to work closely, identify their greatest challenges and foster a harmonious and dependent working relationship.
