By  YINKA KOLAWOLE,  with agency report
Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) has disbursed N1 billion to Imperial Homes Mortgage Bank Limited (formerly GTHomes Limited), emerging as the first mortgage bank to be refinanced by the company.

A statement by the bank noted that the move was in line with NMRC’s drive to facilitate the provision of affordable homes at good mortgage rates to Nigerians. The bank’s Managing Director, Ben Akaneme, the bank’s described the refinancing as a milestone, adding that it was an outstanding achievement in the march towards the realisation of affordable and single-digit interest rates for mortgages in Nigeria. He said the facility will help the bank achieve its mission of enabling easily accessible and affordable mortgages to Nigerians in order to ensure housing for all. “The landmark refinancing brings the vision of homes for all Nigerians within reach,” Akaneme said.

In the mean time, Shareholders of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) have approved an increase of its share capital from N1 million to N18 billion. They gave the approval at the company’s 1st Annual General Meeting recently held in Lagos.

The shareholders approved the resolution to increase of the Share Capital of the company from N1 million, comprising of one million Ordinary shares of N1:00 each to N8.5 billion, comprising of 8.5 billion Ordinary shares of N1:00 each, after amending Clause 6 of the Memorandum of Association of the company to reflect the new authorised Share Capital.

Mr. Herbert Wigwe, interim Chairman of NMRC, presented the audited financial statements for the year ended December 2014 and the Reports of the Directors and Auditors of the company for shareholders’ approval. He noted that within the period in review, the first tranche of equity raise of N7.05 billion was completed. NMRC is currently negotiating the terms of a subscription of its shares with the IFC and Shelter Afrique. NMRC is currently completing the outstanding condition precedents to the subscription, which are nearly fulfilled, with finalisation occurring soon.

Future Outlook

“As we reflect on the progress made thus far, we must note that there is a lot of work that lies ahead. We have dedicated our formative years to building a solid foundation for NMRC’s future and we strongly believe that NMRC is on the right track. However, our journey is a long one and will require persistence and pro-activeness in achieving the purpose for which we were established. We know that with our values and continued support from all stakeholders, NMRC will achieve its goals and surpass the expectations of all stakeholders. As NMRC enters the new financial year with confidence, we will focus on building capacity and the completion of any outstanding operational activities including, an aggressive drive towards the adoption of the Model Mortgage & Foreclosure Law by our Pilot States, the procurement of an ICT Infrastructure for the Mortgage Industry, the completion of our second tranche Equity Capital raise, and most importantly the completion of our first round of mortgage refinancing,” Wigwe stated.

Debt Issuance

The chairman also remarked that NMRC has commenced the filing process with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the Shelf Registration of its Debt Issuance Programme, which has an initial Programme size of N140 billion, to provide liquidity for its refinancing operations. “In order to engender confidence in the credit standing of NMRC as a bond issuing entity, NMRC has obtained credit enhancement from the Federal Government of Nigeria for the Debt Issuance Programme by way of a sovereign guarantee. This confidence is critical in ensuring NMRC’s ability to raise bond financing at just above the level of sovereign debt cost,” he stated.