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The former President , Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria, Mr. Fortune Ebie, has said that until every Nigerian has begun to enjoy a decent, safe and sanitary shelter with secured tenure, he would continue in his leadership role in the advocacy for changes that would benefit Nigerians.

In a paper with the theme: “Developing appropriate tools for the emergence of a vibrant mortgage market in affordable housing”, which he presented at a seminar organised by the association in Lagos recently, Ebie said that the odds against the emergence of a vibrant and robust mortgage market were not only legion but also monumental and appear seemingly insurmountable.

He observed that for all practical purposes, every tool in the housing delivery mortgage system require radical solutions.
Said he: “We must continue to speak up and solicit change no matter the number of times we are turned down from the corridors of power by policy makers”.
The former president summarized tools that are required for finetuning and even radical surgery of the sector as government policy, law and regulations, regulatory authorities/framework, funding of mortgages and capacity building.

He argued that if the 2004 policy was “qualified, how could it then have metamorphosed into “national housing policy” 2006? It has to be realized by now and from all these that we do not have a current and update approved, “national housing policy”, all that we still have is a white paper on report on urban development and housing from which a national housing policy is being distilled”, he added.

As a way to move housing finance forward, he said, the national housing policy 2006, should be re-examined, finetuned as a matter of urgency and publicized for public debate, so that a concensus would be reached. “It is after this process that the final report should be submitted to the National Council on Housing and finally retabled before the federal executive council (FEC) for approval and adopted as a national document”.

He said that all states should adopt the national housing policy 2001 as a model which they should consider as a working document.
In order to address the weakness in the housing finance system and for the institutions to meet up with the challenges of providing affordable finance to meet the production of housing stocks on continous basis, the former general manager of Federal Housing Authority pointed out the need for:
• Increased paid up capital of PMIs from N100M, with emphasis on the actual injection of fresh funds to provide the needed liquidity for sub-sector.

• Promotion of professionalism in PMI operations through the institution of professional training and cetification process which should commence in the year 2007.

• Establishment of secondary mortgage company as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for trading on secondary mortgage securities.

• Promotion of mortgage insurance as a financial product that offers risk coverage to the owner of a mortgage loan.

• Restructuring of FMBN to enhance its credit appraisal and disbursement mechanism as well as project monitoring procedures, while encouraging adequately capitalized and repositioned PMIs to package their developer-clients for the purpose of accessing the estate development loan of FMBN.

• Drastic overhauling of the administration of the NHF in the realms of registration, mobilization and disbursement and transforming same to National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF).

• Broadening the definition of mortgage business to include areas like tourism, hospitality business, furniture and fittings, construction, estate management and development and all house-providing or related industries as additional incentive for PMIs that capitalized to and above the proposed paid-up share capital.

He noted that if other countries could surmount greater and worse problems than Nigeria has, then there was no reason we could not if we have the political, financial, moral, intellectual, collective will to succeed and make “home-ownership-through-mortagage” a reality for all.