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Tag: NHF

  • Ukah’s odyssey from hockey pitch to politics

    Ukah’s odyssey from hockey pitch to politics

    Ex-hockey international and immediate past President of Nigeria Hockey Federation (NHF), Mr. Patrick Ukah, recently celebrated his 50th birthday in Lagos. The entrepreneur, who started off with N2500 in 1973, speaks with TAIWO ALIMI on his experience as a sportsman, entrepreneur and more recently, politician.  

    Beginning

    I was born some 50 years ago on April 10, in Jos, so I can consider myself as one of the set of Nigerians called ‘The Jos Boys.’ I was born into the Ukah family in Okpanam in Udemili North LG of Delta State. Incidentally, my mum is also from the same local government. When the Civil War broke out, we went back to the village and somehow I found myself in Agbor with my mum’s older sister. So I grew up in Agbor and Auchi, schooled in Ife, Osun State and now I’m working in Lagos. I have some siblings (Tony, Chukwuma, Judith and Victor). I am married to Barrister Perp Ukah with three kids, Afoma, who is studying in the UK now, Funaya and Chukwumaziepele Patrick Ukah (Jnr). That is my simple and God-fearing Catholic family.

    I am, of course, an ardent hockey player, a game I love very much but because of the speed I can’t play it again, which made me to switch to golf. I love my golf too and how I wish I made contact with it at a very early age. For me, golf is it and my whole life revolves around it but that does not mean that I still don’t get around doing things in the area of hockey.

    Hockey

    Hockey caused a turnaround in my life and I am most appreciative to hockey. Way back in 1973, I was in Auchi at the All Saints Primary School and I was watching the television when I saw my cousin, Kenneth Adigwu, who was taking part in the march past for the Bendel Sports Festival and I began to wonder what life would be after finishing schooling. I was quite moved because he also started playing in Auchi under a coach called Benedith Epese. That made me take to the game and I made contact with some coaches then; Ben Ogiri, Vincent Osunde, who were coaches I met at an early age when I was in primary school. Because I was determined, I quickly surpassed even my expectations. Hockey became one game that showed me that I could actually go beyond home just doing sports in the school and the neighbourhood because I was a good footballer, played cricket, did sprint and high jump. I was an all-rounder and I think my daughter is taking after me. Within a short time, I became an integral part of the school and junior hockey and in 1975 was called to the junior camp.

    I think in 1979, the late Christian Okoh was the Bendel State hockey chief coach, and the list for the state hockey team to report to camp was released. I was not in it and I became quite upset. That was really when I started testing my faith in God. So, every morning after the usual prayer, I would go aside and pray to God and tell him I have to be in that camp. I am 50 now, so you can imagine in 1979 what was going through my mind. Miraculously as coach Okoh was going to resume camp, he came all the way from Benin, stopped at Auchi and told my mum’s older sister that I have been invited to the state camp and must go with him. So that was how the journey of Patrick Ukah started in big time hockey. Unfortunately, I was among the last set of players to be decamped but the experience of that camping really touched me and after that my life was never the same again. I later played in the Sports Festival for many states aside Bendel, like Oyo and Lagos states.

    And it was like that till 1983, when I received my first national call up and that was in the National Stadium Lagos. I wore the national colours and, like they say, the rest is history.

    I also played for many clubs, but the height of hockey club action was to play for Union Bank, which was like the model for hockey clubs then. I was working in the Nigerian Railways and played for the Union Bank hockey team. I was working in the audit department and was preparing to go to the university and would have qualified for study leave when Union Bank came, so I chose to resign my appointment with the Nigerian Railways because if I took the study leave I had to remain playing for them. So, in order not to lose that opportunity of playing for the Union Bank I submitted my letter of resignation. And from that year, 1983, Union Bank became the crack team and the team to beat. If you have not played for them you have not played hockey club in Nigeria. Union Bank used to travel all over the country to play big teams like Bauchi Flickers, Kano Flickers and El Kanemi Warriors to create awareness for hockey and many people would troop out to watch us and top Nigerians, like former governor Buba Marwa, Senator Buka Ibrahim and Senator Abdul Ningi, the current president of Nigeria Hockey Federation, were involved actively in the clubs. If you look at the growth of hockey that time you will be amazed. We travelled all over the country and hockey league was played on home-and-away basis. It was very popular.

    What I am saying in relation to my life is that hockey exposed me and prepared me for my interest in politics. It kindled my interest at an early age because I saw Nigeria in diversity. At an early age, I had gone to the nooks and crannies of this country and that got me prepared for politics even as a young man and it was hockey. All the places I have travelled to in the world – Europe, America – hockey exposed me to them and I am better for it today because with my background I may probably not have been able to go to all these places.

    Golf

    I would say that what hockey started in my life golf completed it. Golf tells your life story on a daily basis. It is a game of life. And that your life story, it’s either you learn from it and rectify or it would continue to punish you. So you learn every day. It is not that golf is, however, taking me away from hockey but I say what makes one complete in life is what golf has come to top up.

    Football

    I am also an ardent football supporter. If you like, take Bendel Insurance to Division 2, it is the number one club in Nigeria. And no matter the heart ache Arsene Wenger is giving us, Arsenal is my club any day. But as a sportsman, I love Real Madrid and Barcelona any day. But when they are both playing I don’t like one team to intimidate the other. So if you win one, let the other win also. And that is why I like the fact that Real won the Champions League.

    NHF President

    As president of the Nigeria Hockey Federation, I was happy but not as fulfilled as I would have loved to be, because as president I must have done certain things that some quarters did not like; but it was simply for the good of the game and nothing else. And throughout my tenure, history can tell that I grew a pattern. I brought in International Energy Insurance (IEI) and for four years we had the IEI League and you can look forward to it year in year out. With the little we got, we ensured that we did the Savannah Conference, Atlantic Conference and the national final. Then we did the Top Four. We got the players engaged and kept the calendar a bit busy and all we needed to do was step it up. I have done my bit and I know Senator Ningi, my friend and brother, will equally do his best. My only regret is that we never had the opportunity to play the Olympic qualifiers.

    Entrepreneur ability

    I would say I am a good example of what an SME stands for in Nigeria. My experience everyday tells me that if the government can actually look at how the SMEs can survive in this country, we can solve the problem of employment. Not paying lip service. There are lots of companies like us who have suffered with good ideas, who have suffered because of lack of support and who have suffered because of the policies that are existing; the capitalist policies that are existing and that have not helped us to grow.

    In 1994, my company was incorporated but I actually started pushing in 1993. I started by sharing office with two good friends – Demola Seriki and Tayo Akinkumi. Tayo used to have a company called Ventolite Ventures while I had Ventolite Sports Management Consultant. How did I arrive here? In the beginning, while in school, I desperately wanted to read law, so for so many years I did not get into the university because I did not meet the cut-off for law. Each year they would give me admission to study Physical and Health Education and I was turning it down. That was when I was working at the Nigerian Railways. I had some friends at the University of Ife and they were always telling me that I should sign up because God may just have a plan for me in that area, one of them is Segun Ogunnaike. So I ended up studying Physical and Health Education.

    When I finished it, I went for my Masters (MBA) and I chose Marketing; a case study of Guinness. How do we go beyond CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and how can we add value to corporate organisations’ participation in sports? was my final thesis. That has been in my heart and it is a problem that those of us in sports administration and business have not been able to trigger the various big-spending companies in Nigeria. It is either we are not thinking or we have no value to give. So I started thinking how the involvement of these companies in sports sponsorship can increase their bottom-line. You see that what is going on in this country is corporate bodies spending based on CSR. For example, check out Coca Cola and the World Cup. Any venue of the World Cup will have Coca Cola sales and it is going to be exclusive. On the long run, let us check the sales of Coca Cola over a period of time in association with FIFA and compare it with the World Cup budget and also compare it with the top of the mind that would come with it. So Nigerian sports have not been able to do that and that is the thing that drove me towards that area. So I saw this vacuum and fashioned my ideas and company to filling it.

    That further drove me to Lagos Business School where I did the Executive Programme and that changed my whole line of thinking. So what we do at Ventolite is marketing, using sports as a strategy.

    I started Ventolite with N2500, my monthly salary at Ripples as a manager, and I was so determined that I would make a difference. I remember that time that I went to meet Segun Odegbami in the prospect of doing it together with him. He looked at me when I finished speaking and said, ‘Patrick, I am doing a similar thing; if I was not, I would join you.’ But he encouraged me. Ventolite has done a lot with Guinness, Promasidor, Primary Sports Festival, JSK, Cadbury, Ogbe Hard Court and others I cannot remember now. There was no time anybody brought one big money into Ventolite, we just came as an SME with ideas, struggling, using who you know, keep pushing and you are lucky when you have a job. But it’s been difficult expanding the business because raising fund for an SME is difficult in Nigeria. It could be better if government can help us more.

    Look at a scenario where a bank has the authority to give up to a million naira (N1m) and you have to be able to pay in every 30 days interval. You find out that it is not easy because we are not selling tomatoes, where you can make your money on a daily basis. Some brands may not even pay you until 60 days.

    Politics

    Years back, Elder Solomon Ogba, the Delta State Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) told me to try and participate in the state’s politics and I just shrugged it off. But they say the time you wake up is your morning, I’ve woken up and I’m participating and will continue to participate to bringing change in my state. We need to pay more attention to the issue of governance. My kind of politics is like a philosophy and it is hinged on what the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, said: ‘Never be seen to be seating on the fence, be seen to be a participant.’ The problem we are having is because we don’t take active interest in governance, if we do, some of our bad leaders will not get away with what they do. Unrepentantly I’m a PDP member and my grassroots is my ward. I have run for election before; that is not foreclosed and when the time is ripe I will offer my services again. What is more important now is that in Delta State, let’s complete equity and fairness. I would be happy at 50 years plus to see a very credible person with integrity and love for Delta State, a peaceful man from Anioma extraction, become the next governor of Delta State. It is my wish and the birthday present I want and we are working towards it and it will happen. The other thing I would say is to appeal to my brothers from the Central and South that there is no contest about it; we have been able to produce our leader James Ibori from the Central, Governor Emmanuel Uduagha from the Central, can’t we see the solution of equity and fairness almost completed in an Anioma man being given the opportunity and after that anybody can be a governor of Delta State. It would be unfair for anybody to want to deny the Anioma people this opportunity. We are not saying we can do it alone. What we are saying is let’s be accommodated because we have also supported our brothers to rule Delta State. We have great brains that can do it too. For my own people, we should make sure we do not heat up the polity by thinking it is a do-or-die thing and let us pray to God that it will go in a most peaceful way.a

  • Govt launches NHF e-Card

    Contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF) can heave a sigh of relief over the transparency in the management of their money.

    Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan kicked off the first electronic real estate wallet system called the National Housing Fund (NHF) e-Card.

    The data card, Jonathan assured, would ensure transparency in remittance of deductions made by the employers from employees’ salary into their account.

    He described the project as a huge step forward in delivering the “advantage of speed accuracy, transparency accountability and superior customer experience to NHF contributors”.

    Noting that the national policy on housing and the national policy on urban development are the first of their kind in the country since 1991, President Jonathan said the increasing importance of cities and urban areas as pivots of human interaction and centres of national and global economic development defined his administration’s prioritisation of these policies.

    He said: “We are strengthened in all other related institutions as all the agencies are being reinforced to improve their capacities in providing affordable mortgage financing targeted at low income Nigerians and also stimulate affordable mortgage financing and institutional investment to reduce the cost of housing finance in Nigeria.”

    He described the NHF e-card as an effective tool for ensuring transparency and accountability of national housing funds contributions received by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), which he reckons is in line with his administration’s efforts at promoting transparency in the management of resources.

    The new e-card, he added, would not only be helpful in managing funds contributed, but would also boost contributors’ confidence in the NHF scheme.

    It is hoped that defaulters of the scheme will now be comfortable to comply with the scheme since the e-card assures of the safety and proper application of their money, he said.

    The introduction of the e-card makes it possible for NHF deductions, collection and remittance to be done electronically by all designated commercial banks in Nigeria through their existing information technology structures.

    The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of FMBN, Mr. Gimba Yau Kumo, said the government has already begun to harvest the benefits of the scheme as NHF collections rose from about N700 million monthly, to over N2.2 billion with an estimated 100 per cent increase to achieve monthly collection of N4 billion before the year ends.

  • How far can NHF’s N118.8b go?

    How far can NHF’s N118.8b go?

    With N118.8 billion in its kitty, the National Housing Fund (NHF) may be on its way to helping Nigerians, especially low income earners, realise their dreams of owning houses. MUYIWA LUCAS writes.

    With N66.8billion realised in the past three years, the National Housing Fund (NHF) has never had so good in its 21 years of existence. With this cash, the total amount in the fund’s kitty is now N118.8billion, meaning that in its first 18 years, it only generated about N52billion. On the average, the funds’ monthly collection also rose by 174 per cent from N730, 000 to over N2 million.

    The NHF is a Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) baby administered through the Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) to provide mortgage finance to contributors.

    Contributors can access N5million loans at six per cent interest repayable over 30 years. They are expected to pay 2.5 per cent of their monthly salary to the FMBN as managers. It was said N100 billion had been disbursed since the establishment of the scheme till March, last year; 73,676 eligible contributors also benefited,with repayment standing at about N1.7 billion.

    Of this figure, about N40 billion was disbursed by FMBN to PMIs for the financing of housing for 22,246 beneficiaries; about N60billion was granted as Estate Development Loan to some private developers, state-owned housing corporations and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) for the construction of 36,348 houses nationwide.

    These achievements notwithstanding, workers and contributors seem not to have benefited much from the scheme. Workers complain of the inability to access loan from the bank. In some instances, there are complaints that money deducted by employers are not remitted to the fund managers. For instance, Lukmon Ibrahim, a worker, claims that while his employers deduct the money from his salary monthly, he has yet to get any alert on his contributions. Meaning the money may not have been remitted.

    However, Isaac Ojelade, a civil servant, maintains that regularly, he is informed of his contributions to the scheme once the deduction is done because he has a booklet in which the recording is done. He is one of the few contributors who claim to have benefited from the scheme.

    But the FMBN blames ignorance of contributors to the scheme as the bane of their inability to access the fund, insisting that more people have benefited from the scheme in the last few years than before. For now, the mortgage bank is said to be working hard to ensure that more people participated in the scheme, which in turn, would translate to more funds and more money for disbursement. It is also believed that the FMBN is finding a way around tackling defaulting employers and has embarked on sensitising contributors on the advantage of the scheme.

    With the growing financial base of the scheme, more Nigerians and contributors are likely to benefit. Richard Okegbu, a real estate manager, says that the more the contributions to the scheme, the merrier it is for the real estate sector. This is because more people will be in a position to build houses. And when this happens, he says the cost of rent will begin to decline.

    “Besides, if properly harnessed, it (NHF) will help in reducing the housing deficit in the country significantly,” he said.

    To ensure compliance with the contributions, the Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN) has proposed that primary mortgage banks be allowed to act as the main collectors of the contributions.The body reckons that when this is done, the paucity of funds dogging the sector could be eliminated, besides ensuring that transaction cycle is shortened, which is believed would make disbursement of approved NHF loans faster.

    Yet, it is said the automation of the NHF would be good to the scheme. “There is the dire need to conclude automation process of the NHF Scheme, very quickly. The need to re-visit the issue of increasing the monthly contributions to 2.5 per cent of total salaries of contributors, as against the current 2.5 per cent of the basic salary, in order to enhance the volume of the fund,” Femi John, president MBAN said.

    To ensure more Nigerians benefit from the scheme, the FMBN introduced a housing cooperative scheme known as Cooperative Housing Finance to integrate workers in the informal sector into the NHF. This is part of the government’s efforts to improve access to effective mortgage for middle and low income earners, particularly those not employed in the civil service or in the formal sector. Under the scheme, individual and professional cooperative societies can have access to the resources of the mortgage institution when they team up. The cooperative will own the land, the estate, while the FMBN provides the global title, then the individual titles will be provided by the cooperative members. With this, the bank hopes it would be promoting a more effective and efficient affordable housing delivery in the country.

    Stakeholders have recommended the enforcement of a law that would make contributions to the NHF mandatory. The law, if implemented, would help to reposition the FMBN for effective mortgage delivery. They called for the vigorous pursuit of the N200 billion Federal Government intervention fund for housing.

    Also, to enhance affordable housing in the country, a mortgage refinancing company was inaugurated last month to cater for mortgage needs of high income earners, and a “rent-to-own” project, which creates room for tenants to own a home after renting for a some time is also underway.

    With this development, the supervising Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mohammed Musa Sada, reckons that the engagement of the mortgage refinancing company would make the FMBN focus more on providing mortgage for low and middle income earners, including workers in the informal sector.

    “We are already working out the modalities and we hope that before the end of the year we would have worked it out properly,” he said.

  • Housing fund hits N118.8b

    Housing fund hits N118.8b

    In those years, contributions to the National Housing Fund (NHF) rose by N66.8billion, bringing the total amount realised since its inception 21 years ago to N118.8 billion.

    The Board of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), shot up the contribution within three years of its inauguration in 2010. The funds’ monthly average collection also rose by 174 per cent from N730, 000 to over N2 million on the average.

    Explaining the leap in fortune of the fund, Dauda Yusuf, the Head, Corporate Affairs, said the management adopted measures to improve the operational efficiency and service delivery of the organisation, deploying strategies that were aimed at strengthening and putting check and control on the activities of the bank.

    He said the bank partnered critical stakeholders to achieve operational profitability.

    Giving further insight into the feat recorded so far, Yusuf disclosed that the FMBN has also re-financed mortgages to the tune of over N32 billion for 13,750 buyers of non-essential residential Federal Government houses sold in the FCT. This was done through a mortgage-backed bond it put in place in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance for workers in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which is aimed at making them house owners. Also, N28.3 billion and N19.7 billion were disbursed as estate development and mortgage loans in 34 months, an amount that translates to 45 per cent and 46 per cent of the cumulative loans of N64.2 billion and N45.1 billion.

    Only recently, FMBN began a housing cooperative scheme known as Cooperative Housing Finance to integrate workers in the informal sector to contribute to the NHF. The scheme is part of the government’s efforts to improve access to effective mortgage for middle and low income earners, particularly those not employed in the civil service or employed in the formal sector.

    Under the scheme, individual and professional cooperative societies can have access to the resources of the mortgage institution when they come together as a team. The cooperative will own the land, the estate, while the FMBN will provide the global title, then the individual titles will be provided by the cooperative members. With this, the bank hopes it would be promoting a more effective and efficient affordable housing delivery in the country.

    Players in the housing sector have recommended the enforcement of a law that would make contributions to the National Housing Fund (NHF) mandatory. The law, if implemented, would help to reposition the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) to help deliver effective mortgage plans to workers, while also calling for the vigorous pursuit of the N200 billion Federal Government’s intervention fund for housing.

    Also, to enhance affordable housing in the country, a mortgage refinancing company was inaugurted last month to cater for mortgage needs of high income earners, and a “rent-to-own” project, which creates room for tenants to own a home after renting for some time is also underway.

    With this development, Mohammed Musa Sada, the supervising Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, reckons that the engagement of the mortgage refinancing company would make the FMBN focus more on providing mortgage for low and middle income earners, including workers in the informal sector.

    “We are already working out the modalities and we hope that before the end of the year we would have worked it out properly,” he said.

    The National Housing Fund, which was established by Decree 3 of 1992 to facilitate the continuous flow of low-cost funds for long-term investment in housing for the benefit of workers has been plagued by some challenges, one of which is the non-remittance of contributions and also non- participation of some states in the scheme.

    Over the years, some states have stayed off the scheme, as only 28 states are contributors.

  • Maritime workers seek inclusion in NHF

    Maritime workers seek inclusion in NHF

    The Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) at the weekend urged the Federal Government to review the National Housing Fund policy to cover workers in private organisations.

    The Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority Branch of MWUN, Mr Dahiru Talle, said that workers in private organisation in the maritime sector were not contributing to the fund.

    He spoke at the Triennial Delegates’ Conference of Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporation (SSACTAC) in Abuja.

    ”The money of maritime workers in the private organisation is not being deducted.

    “This is not good because the workers will not benefit from the housing scheme,” he said.

    He noted, however, that workers in the public sector were contributing to the fund.

    Reacting, the President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Mr Bobboi Kaigama, urged the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) to ensure that workers in private organisations benefitted from the scheme.

    Kaigama said that NECA, TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to ensure that the three unions would be aware of all houses constructed and allocated under the scheme.

     

  • TUC, FMBN partner on 3.5m housing scheme

    The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has said it will partner and work with Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) on the National Housing Fund (NHF) for the provision of minimum of 3.5 million housing units of various ranges for workers in the next 15 years. This will also be in collaboration with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). The housing scheme has the necessary infractructure.

    In a communiqué signed by the TUC National President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, after its National Executive Council (NEC) in Kaduna, the Congress said good and affordable shelter is a critical issue of major interest to workers, adding that there was need to provide good shelter for every worker.

    The TUC decried the situation where many workers who religiously contributed to previous housing schemes of the Federal Government did not get the houses or any refund of their contributions. The Congress was particularly bitter by the fact that most records of such contributions were not properly kept by the project operators which include both the federal and state governments.

    TUC lamented the high-cost of the houses which made the houses to be essentially beyond the reach of the average worker.

    TUC said it will give the FMBN a trial period of one year to show substantial commitment to the project, threatening to back out of the project should the bank show any sign of unseriousness.

    “That the TUC and NLC must be fully carried along from start to finish of the project. That is, from conceptualisation to planning, costing, building supervision and allocation of the houses. To this end, the TUC insists that the labour centres must be duly represented in the boards of the FMBN, NHF and other relevant bodies involved in housing projects for workers.

    “FMBN must render monthly progress reports on the project to the two labour centres and ensure that all pre-existing, present and future records of NHF contributions made by workers are duly updated and made readily and easily accessible to the contributors,” the communique read in part.

    It added that full refund of contributions plus accrued interest thereon shall be immediately made to workers who were wrongfully denied the houses under previous schemes.

    The communique noted: “That relevant portions of the law be reviewed to compel employers to be more transparent and accountable to their workers on matters relating to remission of contributions to the NHF on behalf of the workers as and when due.”

  • Ekiti eyes N800m FMBN facility

    FOURTEEN years after it pulled out of the National Housing Fund (NHF), the Ekiti State Government has held talks with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) on how to return to the scheme.

    The FMBN management led by its Chairman, Chief Bisi Ogunjobi, has visited the Deputy Governor, Prof Modupe Adelabu in her office in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital to reopen negotiations.

    The delegation’s mission was to sensitise the government on the benefits its participation in the NHF would bring to the state, especially in housing development.

    Such benefits include access to a N800 million loan facility already approved by the bank for Ekiti State Housing Investment Corporation.

    The deputy governor said Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration was doing its best to make the state first-choice destination for investors, saying that good road networks and rural development are being intensified to fast-track development.

    Mrs Adelabu said government would continue to explore and harness every available opportunity to achieve its agenda on infrastructural development, which according to her, includes provision of affordable houses and estates for civil servants and other residents.

    She reiterated the administration’s resolve to deliver dividends of democracy on its Eight-Point Agenda, listing as priority the provision of social infrastructure, stable electricity supply and portable water among others, for the comfort of residents and to attract investors.

    The deputy governor described the FMBN as a veritable financial body and assured that Ekiti State would not hesitate to explore the opportunity offered by the bank for the benefit of its workforce.

    She urged the bank officials to step up enlightenment programmes to sensitise labour leaders and workers about services offer.

    Stating the mission of his entourage, Ogunjobi said the body has been rebranded and expanded to accommodate many people.

    He confirmed that the bank, through the NHF, has earmarked N800 million for property development in the state, but insisted the state must rejoin the scheme to access the fund.

    Ogunjobi urged the government to facilitate its membership procedure to enable it to access the fund and use it to consolidate the ongoing infrastructural development agenda of the state.

  • Abuja firm’s luxury flats target NHF depositors

    Abuja firm’s luxury flats target NHF depositors

    A PROPERTY developer, Propertymart Real Estate Investment Limited, plans to erect blocks of luxury flats under its highbrow ‘Grenadines Home in Lokogoma, in Abuja.

    The estate will host five three-storey blocks with 84 units of three-bedroom ensuite luxury flats.

    Propertymart’s Abuja Branch Head Adeyemi Adeniyi said the initiative was informed by the need to make housing more affordable to civil servants in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who are contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF) and also entitled to access loans from the scheme.

    On costs, he said a three-bedroom unsuited luxury flat would go for N17.5 million, but that its Independence Day promo reduced the price to N14.5 million. The promo, which started last week, is expected to end on November 15.

    On mode of payment, Adeniyi said a beneficiary is expected to make a 10 per cent down payment and spread the rest between 18 and 24 months.

    He revealed the estate is targeted at NHF contributors, who can access a loan of up to N15 million from the housing finance scheme. According to him, Propertymart is in talks with an Abuja-based Primary Mortgage Institution (PMI) to facilitate the mortgage financing of the houses to lucky beneficiaries.

    Apart from the blocks of flats, Propertymart is also building for sale homes, such as the four-bedroom terrace house (with a boys’ quarter), four-bedroom semi-detached duplex (also with a boys’ quarter) and five-bedroom fully detached duplex. Some of the houses display penthouses with roof-top terraces for relaxation, loft-styled finish, personal car parking, glass curtain walling, jacuzzi and unique colour finishing.

    Located in Lokogoma District around the Games Village in Abuja, Grenadines Home Lokogoma sits on a five-hectare stretch of land, with about 2,000 square metres reserved for recreation facilities and open spaces.

    The estate will be equipped with facilities, such as swimming pool, gym and lawn tennis court. It is about 15 minutes’ drive from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and also 15 minutes’ drive from the Central Business District of Abuja. Located in a residential area, it is also about 10 minutes from Shoprite, touted as Africa’s largest shopping mall.

    Initiated through a partnership agreement between Propertymart and Omega Homes Limited, the Grenadines Home Lokogoma is targeting the middle and high income class.

    The Lagos-based architectural firm of Messrs Play In Architecture Limited designed the estate and the dwelling units, while Messrs Billing Cost & Associates are quantity surveyors to the project.

    On what informed the choice of Abuja for the estate, Adeniyi said: “We want to repeat the same feat we have recorded in the South-west over the on-going construction of ‘Grenadines Arepo,’ Ogun State, where the civil engineering infrastructure is being handled by the PW Group.

    “Apart from desiring quality homes to be delivered at an affordable rate and on time, we want to stand out in the real estate market and raise the standard being set by developers on construction of housing projects in Abuja.

    “The aim is also to advance the economy through real estate.”

    According to him, Propertymart nurses an ambition to build more estates in Abuja upon the completion of Grenadines Homes Lokogoma.

    He added that other cities being targeted by Propertymart include some unexplored areas in Ogun State, Port Harcourt in Rivers State and Karu in Nasarawa State.