The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said the government has approved the 66,402 applications received on the Federal Government Mortgage Refinancing scheme for prequalification.
Okonjo-Iweala stated this at a media briefing on the update of first 10,000 Mortgaged Housing Refinancing scheme held on Thursday in Abuja.
The scheme was launched by the Federal Government on July 31.
She said that 66,402 people subscribed to the scheme and added that government would accommodate every application to meet the aspiration of Nigerians.
“There is enough funding to back this project and that is why we created the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company. What the interim CEO just said now is that they are ready.
“As long as the banking institutions and Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) meet the guidelines there will be money to back this, if we cannot do 66,000 mortgages now, then we are nowhere.
“Remember, we are a country of 170 million people, this system is designed to try and help us deliver at least 200,000 mortgages in each year.
“So, don’t fear if all of them make it,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the minister as saying at the briefing.
According to her, in eight weeks, the 66,402 applications will be shared among 21 PMIs to know how many people are qualified to get the houses.
She advised that once people were prequalified, they should start looking for houses of their choice.
Commenting on the spread of the applications, she said the requests were spread across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
She said that 63 per cent of the applicants were male and 37 per cent female.
The minister said 89 per cent of the requests were single applications, while the rest were requests made jointly by couples.
