By Sarauniya g Usman Abuja
Chief Executive Officer, NISH Affordable Housing Limited, Convener, Housing Finance Summit, Yemi Adelakun, says cost effective housing finance option and cooperative housing are special purpose vehicle for home ownership.
He said this on Tuesday at the Nigeria Affordable Housing Finance and Innovation Summit and Expo, NAHFIS 2022 in Abuja.
The theme of the expo is Maximizing Impact of Pension for Equity on Affordable Housing Delivery. With sub-theme tagged ‘Leveraging Digital Banking for Cooperative Housing Finance’.
According to him, the objective of the summit is to promote housing finance disruptions and leveraging digital innovations and cooperative principles for large scale affordable housing delivery.
“Affordable housing is difficult and challenging that is why we went into cooperatives as a solution. In cooperatives we have social capital, people contributing their money individually aggregating it at little or no cost.
“If you want to buy a house at the interest rate of 10 per cent, 15 per cent it’s almost impossible but with cooperatives you can get your loan for less than two percent. Cooperative is about self-help.
“We come together, contribution our money and help ourselves, we can even be the developers because so many developers are not interested in affordable housing, they are interested in their profit.
“Houses for low income earners have to be cost effective, to be of standard, there must be sanitation and water but at the same time their income must be able to afford it,” he said.
He added that an app had been developed to help those that cannot afford to go to banks or mortgages to come together and contribute money to help themselves in a space of time.
“When you have about 20 people contributing into a pool like this it can be just as strong as a bank, such that is working in Kenya and can work even better in Nigeria,” he said.
Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, said there was need to deploy technology to boost housing supply in the country.
“We have to find a way in which we can deploy digital technologies in an efficient manner that will also help to boost the stock and supply of Access to housing in our country.
“The theme that have been chosen for this summit as we move forward in the era of the digital technology it’s important that we begin to look at housing financing through digital technology.
“How do we raise resources in a meaningful manner, the advert of mobile telephone done in our lives.
“The ability to be able to use various applications, to sit at your table and be able to do banking transactions, to sit at your table and be able to do airline bookings.
“That kind of innovation must be able to come into the housing space, deploy digital technologies in an efficient manner that will also help to boost the stock and supply and access to housing,” Dipeolu said.
On his part, the Managing Director, Federal Housing Authority Mortgage Bank, Mr Hayatuddeen Awwal, said government had been doing a lot in terms of making housing affordable.
He said the federal government had implemented the local content law and was been enforced and encourage stakeholders in the built environment, from the REDAN, to Urban Mortgage Bankers Association to use them.
“In NBRRI a lot of research are ongoing and are available, and it is helping bring down the cost of home ownership.
“We are calling for the enforcement of standardisation, SON should move into action, those local raw materials must be standardized, there must be check and balance,’’ Awwal said.
Former, the Managing Director, Family Homes Limited and Consultant Urban Economics International Limited,Mr Femi Adewole, speaking on the housing gap said it was possible to close up the housing gap. He said bridging the housing gap was a progressive process, and that the country was well on its way.
“Housing now forms the centre of government policy for growing the economy, for many years in Nigeria we have seen housing as a social service but now housing is being seen as an economic activity.
“Activity that can actually contribute to the economy, create jobs increases employment, it puts money in the pockets of people.
“We also seeing a very strong reform around some of the central institutions that are responsible for housing delivery.
“There is some exceptionally good work going on at the Federal Mortgage Bank, Federal Housing Authority, the Family Homes Funds.
“We are making progress, though some people may think it slow but I think it good for us,’’ Adewole said.
The summit was well attended by housing finance experts cutting across the public and private sectors both in and outside the country with key note presentations around affordable housing.