Consultant Okays Banking Reforms

A consultant in the real estate sector, Mr. Emmanuel Mark has said that the reform that is going on in the Nigeria’s financial sector will go a long way to strengthen the banking industry which will in-turn provide long term mortgage that will guarantee boom in the real estate industry.

Mark who spoke to newsmen recently on the imperative of banking reforms and growth in the real estate sector explained that over valuation of property prices, rising interest rates, growing debt and increasing difficulty in the attainment of project viability as well as the recent time global financial crisis slowed the growth of the housing sector.

According to Mark, who is the National Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), “We expect that there will be positive effects in the long term in the real estate sector on the recent action of the Central Bank on the re-evalation of the credit risk which has brought about the tightening of the terms of granting credit to estate sector.”

He said that financing will perhaps be the most significant contribution to the well being of the sector, and that the overhaul of the apex Mortgage Bank and strict supervision of regulations particularly in the area of residential construction will be of immense value.

The NIESV Publicity Secretary also said that most governments in developing countries intervened in the financial sector to achieve economic growth, pointing out that finance linked to construction and real estate ownership becomes a dynamic element of loan and credit granted by Nigerian financial institutions.

Mark however stressed the important role of the banking sector in all economies, which he said, is to channel resources from primary savers to investment opportunities, saying that efficient banking systems will facilitate better mobilisation and use of resources which can accelerate the process of growth in the economy.