Shelter Afrique Set to Build on Its $220m Housing Investment in Nigeria

* FMBN seeks help to complete abandoned estates

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) yesterday said it was ready to collaborate with Shelter Afrique Development Bank, a housing and real estate pan-African finance institution, to build on the bank’s $220 million investment in Nigeria since its establishment.
Speaking when he received the delegation from the continental bank, the Managing Director of FMBN, Mr Shehu Osidi, said areas of partnership will include construction financing, gender-related housing, Islamic non-interest housing , among others.

Osidi noted that in the area of abandoned housing units in the country, the bank also intends to work with Shelter Afrique to ensure their completion.
Shelter Afrique’s current shareholders include 44 member countries, plus the African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Reinsurance Corporation (Africa-Re). Nigeria has over 15 per cent equity in the bank.
“We will be happy to have the opportunity to access construction funding from Shelter Afrique for projects for which we can provide optimal guarantee,” Osidi said.

Under the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme, for which FMBN is providing the offtake guarantee for the delivery of 100,000 units across the country, Osidi said that both organisations can also look for areas to work together.
“We also have abandoned estates spread all across the country in different locations. In 26 states of the federation, we have different projects at different stages, abandoned for one reason or the other.

“One of the main reasons is that we had entered into partnerships with state governments, where they undertook to provide infrastructure, whereas FMBN was to provide construction finance for those houses.
“ While in most of those cases the bank was able to deliver on the houses, the state governments have reneged on providing infrastructure, so we are stuck,” the FMBN boss added.

According to him, another area both banks can explore is in the diaspora mortgage space, where Nigerians remit as much as $25 billion home every year.
“We have about $25 billion annually, and that is more than the budget of some countries in Africa,” he stressed.
Also speaking, the Representative of the Minister of Housing,  Dr Akinola Olakunle, said the delegation is in Nigeria for one week to meet critical governmental leaders towards deepening its capacity housing development plan in the country.

“They have about 54 housing finance loans made to this country, totalling about  $220.5 million. Out of this, about 26 of the projects have been completed, amounting to about $117.6 million,” he stressed.
In her remarks, the Chairman of the board of Shelter Afrique, Chika Akporji, said the team was in Nigeria to identify areas of collaboration, stressing that the housing bank had engaged with the Nigerian market for a very long time.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive of Shelter Afrique, Thierno-Habib Hann, disclosed that since he arrived he had met with the Nigerian vice president, the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), minister of housing, and many others, in  a bid to support Nigeria’s housing sector.

“We saw from the highest level of the country the commitment to address the housing and urban sector as a priority, because they actually do realise the importance of the sector, in terms of driving economic growth, job creation as well and revenue generation for the population,” he stated.
Hann pointed out that Nigeria remains important to the organisation beyond its shareholding, noting that the bank recently revised its 40 years old statutes to reflect best practices in the development finance institutions.