Mr Adeniyi Akinlusi is one of the facilitators of My Own Home, a programme put together by Nigeria Housing Finance Program,(NHFP), Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), World Bank. He holds a B.Sc (Accounting) from University of Ilorin and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from University of Lagos.
He is a Fellow (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Fellow (FCTI) of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Fellow (FICA) of the Institute of Credit Administration and Fellow (FIAPM) of the Association of Investment Advisers and Portfolio Managers. He is also an Alumnus of Harvard Business School (HBS) Boston, U.S.A., the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Lausanne, Switzerland, Lagos Business School, (LBS), Lagos, Nigeria and a Honourary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (HCIB).
He has also attended various Management, Strategic and Leadership courses in Nigeria and abroad including London Management Centre (London); I.E.S.E. Business School, University of Navarra (Barcelona, Spain) and the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA).
Adeniyi Akinlusi held various strategic and leadership positions in Intercontinental Bank Plc and in March 2006, he was seconded to Intercontinental Homes Savings & Loans Plc(Now TrustBond Mortgage Bank PLC) as the Managing Director/Chief Executive.
After over 20 years of extensive and diversified banking experience in niche banking including, Corporate, Retail, Branch, Regional, Oil and Gas, Public Sector and Mortgage banking, he retired from Intercontinental Bank as a General Manager, and moved fully to Intercontinental Homes(Now TrustBond Mortgage Bank PLC) in 2011 where he has been the Chief Executive since 2006.
He spoke to City People Senior Property Reporter, ISAAC ABIMBADE, on the importance of owing a home and how Nigerians can access funds to own theirs. Enjoy.
Please, explain what ‘My Own Home, a public-private partnership means?
This is a programme under Nigeria Housing Finance Project, anchored by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It’s a way to increase awareness and increase access to home finance for Nigerians; working with the market players and who are the market players? The Mortgage Banks, the Micro Finance banks and even Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company; to let people know that there’s opportunity to own their homes. Because the benefit of home ownership is very important and whether you like it or not you are involved in home ownership.
If you are a tenant you are paying rent to your landlords, the landlord may be using it to pay his mortgage. Indirectly, you are paying the mortgage of your landlord. So, it’s an investment and why should you be involved in somebody’s investment! invest in yourself. In as much as you are paying rent, you are involved in home ownership. The programme is anchored on a major platform under the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company. And the NMRC is the only Mortgage Bank and commercial bank that are shareholders, that can refinance mortgage bond.
Also, interest rate is an issue. How does NMRC gets its own money? NMRC will issue bond to the capital market and pension companies will invest in those bonds, so NMRC will now refinance it to the mortgage and you can see how the cycle will continue. That is why we say it’s self sustaining.
Tell us briefly about yourself sir?
I’m Adeniyi Akinlusi, President of Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria and the Chief Executive Officer of Trustbond Mortgage Bank Plc.
How does it really affect an average Nigerian and what plans do you have in place to carry everyone along.
If you notice clearly, people who have been able to access mortgages are those working in the formal sector: You have a job or you are an employee in an organisation. Only such people can boast of salary or income payment and they are the only people whom the banks can access. So, Mortgage Bank will provide funds for only such people.
People in the informal sector are excluded because there’s no certainty of income, so they are excluded. We also know that the people in the informal sector and self employ are the one who generate over 60 percent of the GDP of this country. The economy rests solely on their shoulders. People in agriculture are in the informal sector. People in the market are in the informal sector. People in the transportation are in the informal sector.
The vulcanizer, welders, hairdressers are all in the informal sector. Whether we like it or not, they are living somewhere, and they are praying rents. If they are generating income to pay their rents, they can also key into the mortgage system and that’s part of the project’s objectives. And over 50 percent of Nigerian population are young people. People who are into creative industry such as Nollywood sector.
As the President of Mortgage Bank Association of Nigeria, what are the motivating factors you see in the initiative?
I must say we have no choice because every year, people are leaving the universities. How many people are employed? Somebody said that Nigeria had the second highest number of young people who should be in school, but are not in the school and you can only get education when you are young. Imagine what could happen to this group of people in 15 years time? They will have become adults and without education, they may not have a source of income to sustain themselves.
Are you saying the programme is the solution to the affordable house?
No. What we are saying is that, we are giving you access to acquire money to build your own house. If you buy your own house, you are also creating jobs for people to do. That is simply what it means. Every house you build, you create nothing fewer than 30 jobs, both direct and indirect jobs. Right from the recharge cards sellers to the person selling food at the site, not to talk of lawyer who handles the documentation and the surveyor.
That is a sure way of creating jobs. Creating jobs has to do with the housing sector. With this programme, we are going to have an underwriting standard that would make it possible for the mortgage banks to access them, so as to enable them have access to fund through a Mortgage Bank.
What we are saying to them is that, if you are paying rent, you can channel that money to fund your own house through Mortgage. What you can do is to find a cheap house to buy and fund it with the Mortgage. The mortgage bank will tell you the type of house you can afford base on your income. It’s something that will create jobs and youth empowerment would be there.
Once you own your own house, you are becoming stable even when you are not married. Many things happen with home ownership because it creates jobs, you have social stability. This is the way to go. And that is why all the parties involved are working together; public-private partnership, Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company, Central Bank, Mortgage Banks, World Bank, and Microfinance Bank as well.
Send Us News, Gist, more... to citypeopleng@gmail.com | Twitter: @CitypeopleMagz
