By Akhigbe Dominic.M. Esq
TUE, FEBRUARY 28 2017-The last three editions were particularly tasking. I tried to aptly capture the feelings and mindsets of my various Readers who daily bamboozled me with calls, mails and chats all to find out a thing or the other about the National Housing Funds scheme and by extension, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
My Publisher, High Chief Charles Ike-Okoh (is someone saying WHAT?!), who has now branded me ‘The Housing Doctor’ has noticed that Nigerians need information about affordable Housing; mostly about those windows (such as NHF, FMBN) that the government has put in place to enable Nigerians Access affordable homes. Very unfortunately, it appears these entities are not doing enough to inform, educate and enlighten Nigerians about their core mandates.
On this platform and other platforms where we have the opportunity to speak, write of and lecture from time to time, we have spared nothing (most times at our own cost) to inform Nigerians. We can boldly hit our chests and say our efforts are paying off. At least, this we can confidently say in view of the torrents of calls, mails, chats and messages we have received in the last three weeks in response to the last three series we titled; ‘The National Housing Funds Scheme; What the Contributors Need to Know’. So much so that a top-notch of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN (who asked not to be quoted) called us from the Bank’s Headquarters in Abuja to appreciate our modest contribution to enlightening Nigerians using all our global platforms.
This we will continue to do and as a matter of fact, continue to improve on. A time not too far from now, we, in conjunction with like minds as well as some international partners from overseas will be organizing a National Housing Summit that is expected to avail Nigerians the opportunity to bear their minds on tilting national Housing issues and come up with a concerted communique that would be presented to the National Assembly for consideration in the direction of totally reassessing the current National Housing Policy and come up with something more encompassing, very contemporary and in line with global best practices. This we will surely do!
We had an edition titled ‘The National Housing Funds scheme; what the Contributor should know’ that ran for three weeks. This particularly, drew attention from Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora. Foreigners were also not left out as I got mails from The United Kingdom and the United States from clearly non-Nigerians who were keenly interested in our models as presented by PropertyLogic Incorporated. This has placed an additional burden on us to strive for the best only.
Readers however came up with fresh demands and queries on how an individual can actually access the Housing Loan through the National Housing Funds scheme. I therefore would be addressing this as much as the set parameters would allow me to do on a platform like this. I will however inform our readers that issues that cannot be handled on a public platform like this can be handled on a personal level. Our various lectures, seminars, workshops and summits are also very important platforms to address issues relating to Affordable Housing no-hold-bar!
APPLYING FOR A HOUSING LOAN THROUGH THE NHF SHEME:
This is an uphill task for Nigerians as it appears that a lot is shrouded in secrecy at this level. I will disabuse your mind clearly that this process is as straight forward as possible. For those that believe there is more to it; we can excuse their worries as a great number of them have had very bitter experiences in the past. We at PropertyLogic are fully on ground as watchdogs. We are ready to bark at the slightest presumption of any attempt to contaminate this process from the point of the MLO (Mortgage Loan Applicator) to the highest level of the Federal Mortgage Bank. You can trust us on this. Otherwise, why would we belabor ourselves this much to educate Nigerians on this if we are not ready to further stake our necks?
…..to be continued.
Akhigbe Dominic.M. Esq., /Property Law Expert/CEO, H.I.E Properties & Homes Ltd/SENIOR STRATEGIC PARTNER, PropertyLogic Incorporated/Seasoned Business Coach/Columnist of The BusinessDay/Contributing Editor, govandbusinessjournal.com.ng
