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Housing: Mortgage industry gets N10bn in 2005 budget
Oluyinka Akintunde, Abuja
The Federal Government has approved N10 billion in the 2005 appropriation bill for the mortgage industry to facilitate development and delivery of housing in the country.
The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Chief (Mrs.) Mobolaji Osomo, confirmed this to our correspondent on Thursday in Abuja, shortly after declaring open the first Conference of the National Council on Housing and Urban Development, which was attended by commissioners of housing and urban development and permanent secretaries from all the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory.
Osomo, who stated that the N10 billion was aimed at energizing the mortgage industry, explained that the lack of access to mortgage had slowed down housing delivery in the country.
�As part of efforts of the present administration to boost the mortgage industry and housing delivery, the federal government has earmark the sum of N10 billion for mortgage industry,� she stated.
The minister also disclosed that government would promote home ownership for majority of Nigerians on the basis of affordable and widely available houses, which she stated, could be bought through mortgage financing and repaid over a long period and at affordable interest rates.
Earlier in her address at the Conference, Osomo said the government would create enabling environment for private sector participation in housing delivery through facilitating access to land for real estate developers and ensuring ample secondary mortgage finance to individual home owners.
�In terms of the institutional arrangements for effective housing delivery, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria are being restructured and repositioned for optimum performance.
�We are also addressing the issues of land administration and registration practices with view to achieving greater operational efficiency throughout the country,� she explained.
She added that the government was addressing problems confronting towns and cities such as the issues of poverty, environmental degradation, unemployment, traffic congestion, infrastructural deficiencies and security through participatory urban governance.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. John Alkali, stated that the contributions of the housing and urban development sectors to the Gross Domestic Product was substantial, with attendant benefits such as poverty and crime reduction, the creation of value, promoting capital formation and the provision of needed shelter and infrastructure for other economic activities.
The PUNCH, Friday, October 22, 2004
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