FMBN Wants Urgent Action On Housing Deficit

The Federal Mortgage
Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has stressed the need for urgent steps in order to bridge the current housing deficit in Nigeria.
The Managing Director of FMBN, Mr Gimba Ya’u Kumo who made this known in a chat with newmen in Abuja, said that if nothing is being done urgently, that there will be an estimated homeless population of 24.4 million people in Nigeria by 2015.
The FMBN boss posited that the housing situation in Nigeria has come to the point where the country will need a minimum of N56 trillion to be able to bridge a deficit of 17 million housing units.
According to him, housing experts have noted that the housing deficit has continued to increase, saying that the development indicates that the government’s housing policy is not working as expected.
He said that the shortfall, which did not cover the cost of providing infrastructure translated to an average cost of N3.5 million per housing unit.
Ya’u Kumo noted that the deficit rose from seven million housing limits in 1991 to between 12 and 15 million while peaking at between 17 and 18 million units in 2012.
He insisted that the deficit would continue to rise until the necessary authorities are able to bring down interest rates to a single-digit level, so as to enable low income earners to access mortgage loans.
Currently, he said that Nigeria’s home ownership rate, currently put at 25 per cent is very low when compared with the housing situation in some developing and developed countries.