By YINKA KOLAWOLE

…hold stakeholders’ parley with FMBN
Protracted disconnect between real estate developers and policy makers in the housing sector have been identified as one of the problems militating against housing development in Nigeria.

President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Chief Olabode Afolayan, made this assertion during an interactive session between developers and the management of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) led by its Managing Director Mr. Gimba Ya‘u Kumo,  to fashion out ways of tackling the challenges facing housing development in the country.

He said that the Nigerian housing sector is confronted with a myriad of problems, stretching from frustrating land acquisition system to a grossly underfunded mortgage finance sector, which is made worse by a protracted disconnect between developers of home and policy makers.

According to him, the parley with the management of FMBN was to facilitate the bridging of the long existing gaps between developers and housing policy makers through periodic strategic meetings. “Choosing the managing director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria on this debut edition of the Developers Benefit Luncheon (DBL) was deliberate and most instructive. In the Nigerian housing sector, besides land acquisition, the bulk of challenges faced by developers are mortgage and finance related.

“This edition of DBL tagged: “the score card” will better inform existing and intending beneficiaries of Estate Developers Loans (EDL), developers needing assistant on offshore loan and those having issues with Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMI), among others,” he said.

In his comment, Ya’u Kumo said every effort was being made within the limited funds available to FMBN to assist developers to build more houses in the bid to bridge the huge housing gap in the country.

He emphasised the need for adequate government funding for the bank to enable it meet up with the huge financial demands of developers in delivering more houses for the teeming Nigerian populace. He assured that the bank will only deal with developers who registered with REDAN.