Mortgage Financing In Nigeria: Challenges And The Search For Strategies Aimed At Achieving Global Competitiveness.

ABSTRACT

Property developers are facing micro and macro economic problems in their search for ways and means of ensuring sustainable growth. Issues such as higher than expected building period, building cost and interest charged on borrowed capital hinder this noble idea. Policies of various arms of government in Nigeria had been unstable over the years due to frequent changes in the polity. The main objectives of this paper was to assess the acceptability of the National housing fund programme by the populace from the point of view of their participation, and evaluate the impact of the scheme on real estate development activities in the country as a whole. At the empirical level, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (Apex Bank), was studied with respect to both the collection of the national housing fund and the granting of mortgage loans to both the primary mortgage institutions and private real estate developers in the country. Current significant bottlenecks in real estate development as identified by primary mortgage institutions and private estate developers in Nigeria were looked into in an attempt at offering workable solutions. The result of this study shows that for the populace to achieve maximum benefits accruable from the sustainability of the national housing fund, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria should enhance its credibility by promptly considering loan applications forwarded. A situation where mortgage loan applications are not considered on time or funds not released to beneficiaries on time, can frustrate individuals. Once this is done, the national housing scheme would assist Nigerians to face the challenges of housing the masses squarely thereby achieving global competitiveness.