The Chairman, Board of Directors, Bilaad Realty and Coordinating Trustee of the Bilaad Development Trust, Dr Sadiq Suleiman Abdullahi has proposed ethical financing, alternative building models and all inclusive mortgage to guarantee affordable housing in Nigeria
He stated this in Abuja over the weekend during the Company’s Gem Hunt 50 with the theme “From Roots to Riches: Building Nigeria’s Next Generation of Entrepreneurs”
Speaking on Nigeria’s property industry, he said the future of affordable housing lies at the intersection of three critical pillars which includes ethical financing, alternative building models and all inclusive mortgages
“Ten years ago in 2016, 30 million Naira could buy your house in Abuja Now that amount cannot pay rent in some parts of Abuja and there’s dwindling price to income ratios. While there has been an astronomical increase in the cost of houses, incomes have stayed relatively the same the last 10 years. So the future of affordable housing in Nigeria lies at the intersection of three critical pillars.
“The first pillar is ethical finance We cannot continue to build houses with conventional finance that has predatory debt. So you borrow money from the bank and down the line, and you need to understand construction happens in a moving market. So the first pillar is concessionary finance ethical, that is revenue-based. There’s no amount of financial engineering that would make houses to be cheaper if the cost of finance is already high.
“The second pillar out of the three pillars is alternative building technologies Housing has to cave into the cultural nuances. The kind of house you need in Abuja is different from the kind of house you need in your village.
“Then the third and final is an all-inclusive mortgage system Somebody who is earning N150 000 to N200,000 today cannot key into a mortgage because of the price of the house. So the mortgage system should incorporate the informal sector and all forms of earners.
Also speaking on the fifth edition of the Gem Hunt, he said, “Today we’re here for the fifth installment of our Gem Hunt project and this year the theme is Roots to Riches, Building Nigeria’s Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
“We chose this theme for a reason If you look at the labor and productivity space in Nigeria, Medium, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, (MSMEs) as well as the larger informal sector, contribute to over 60 percent of Nigeria’s GDP, and they contribute to a staggering 80 to 90 percent of the employment share.
“But they are facing a number of barriers For some it’s the cost of energy, for some it’s exclusion from digital economy, for some it’s mentoring and hand-holding by established business people, and for most of them it is access to credit. So we listened to these young disruptive future business leaders and see where we can partner with them to solve some of these challenges.
Dr Abdullahi also noted that “A lot of them have good investable ideas, but conventional banks will not give them money because they need to collateralize the loan, So the first step is to provide them with funding.
“Then the second one is participation in the digital economy So you have a good number of these businesses in remote areas that have users of their products and services in another area and there’s no linkage of product to market. So we plan to provide strategic linkages of products and service to market. Then the third and final thing is mentoring and hand-holding by established business people who already have capital. Whether it’s integrity capital, knowledge capital, or relationship capital,” he added
Similarly, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bilaad Realty Limited, Emmanuel Bassi Usman said that the Gem Hunt is critical in promoting entrepreneurship in Nigeria and contributing go economic development
“Nigeria is facing brain drain, but we also have the opportunity to create wealth and that is why we are building entrepreneurs to creath wealth and bridge the unemployment gap,”