By Jude Njoku

Crossover Savings & Loans Limited, one of the new players in the Nigerian mortgage industry, has  signed an agreement with an American Construction Company, Messrs Frontera Global Company, to develop affordable houses in the country.

The US company which is also developing similar housing projects in Kenya, will build the houses in the form of community estates on a contractor-finance arrangement.

These facts were disclosed by the Vice Chairman of the primary mortgage institution, PMI, Mr. Bode Akinboye in a chat with Vanguard Homes & Property. The estates would be built on the outskirts of Lagos – Epe, Badagry, Ikorodu and along the Lagos – Ibadan expressway axis.

Further to this, the PMI which acquired the former Pacific Savings and Loans, is also collaborating with some indigenous developers to provide housing to the numerous home seekers in the Lagos area.

The Crossover vice chairman gave details of the agreement with the offshore developers. “We have signed an agreement with a foreign company that is bringing multi-million dollars loan to Nigeria but not in form of cash but in form of contractor-finance  plan. What this means is that they are coming to Nigeria to be build houses with their own money provided there is a guaranteed list of people that will take these houses as they are building them.

Refinancing of the loan
The multi-national company can build houses fast with their  money but want an assurance that when they build, they will be able to collect their money at the end of the day. And this loan can go as far as ten years. At the end, we have the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN that can now refinance the whole loan for up to 30 years,” he said.

Continuing, he said: “They are bringing a building design that is engineered but is concrete to the extent that you can churn out about 50 houses in a day. The building design is already engineered in form of a model formwork. Once the foundation is laid, you just put the formwork on the foundation which is either raft foundation or pile foundation depending on the nature of the soil.

“Once the normal foundation is made, you just bring the structure on it and then pour the mixed concrete on it and within 48 hours, the concrete will cure. You now take out the form and put on another foundation; there is no need for plastering. The house is already engineered with piping, electrical, everything is put in place before you pour in the concrete. So, it is a fast-build technology that will offer employment to a lot of Nigerians”

Mr Akinboye said the PMI is also setting up a workshop where the various artisans -plumbers, electricians that will be involved in the construction work, will be assembled and further trained to be able to cope with the large number of houses that would bebuilt.

“The first project we will do will be very critical. We are in touch with some Federal government parastatals and cooperatives of oil and telecoms companies that can take between 800 – 1,000 housing units. There are some cooperatives that have already acquired land in the Lekki axis that can take about 800 houses.

“We are talking with them to finalise the agreement. One thing critical with these estates is that they come with independent power, waste management, good roads network and street lighting because one of the major drawbacks to housing is lack of infrastructure.

“If you go into the bush and build houses and there are no access roads to the houses, there are no security and lights, nobody will go and live there. Because this one is partly a US fund, there are minimum conditions that must be met – we are building community estates that have schools, sporting facilities and green areas,” Mr. Akinboye clarified.

The mortgage firm, Mr. Akinboye said, is also partnering with some Nigerian developers who have large expanse of land for housing development and  some building materials suppliers.

“We have an agreement with a developer on the Lekki axis called Gioni Homes. They have about 40 hectares of land around Sangotedo and they have churned out the first set of bungalows which we intend to roll out within the next two weeks. While we are perfecting the arrangements with the foreign funders, we want to work with the developer to offer those houses on mortgage to intending buyers. The houses will be under N15 million,” he said.

Crossover Savings and Loans has also financed the construction of 24 flats along the LASU -Iba Road, Igando. Christened Dominion Court, the flats are now ready for occupation.