Housing Finance Development Program

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The objective of the Housing Finance Project for Nigeria is to increase access to housing finance by deepening primary and secondary mortgage markets in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The project has four components. The first component is establishment of the mortgage refinance company. The project will support the establishment and operation of Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), created in partnership between private financial institutions, development finance institutions, and the ministry of finance. It will issue standard corporate bonds into the capital markets and subsequently issue loans (refinance and pre-finance) to mortgage lending institutions. The second component is establishment of a mortgage guarantee product, targeted at lower income borrowers. The project will fund the product development including testing and financial modeling, and then launch a competitive process, among private or public owned nonbank financial institutions to select a mortgage guarantee agent to implement the project. The project will also provide a line of credit to the project implementing entity on account of the mortgage guarantee agent for the issuance of mortgage guarantee products to eligible lenders. The third component is Housing Microfinance (HMF). This component aims to support the development and piloting of new and or emerging formal HMF products and to demonstrate a sustainable business case for these activities. The fourth component is Technical Assistance (TA) and capacity building. The TA will be provided to support components one, two, and three. The TA will include provision of operational support to NMRC including assistance for bond issuance, mortgage lender training, mortgage consumer protections and financial literacy, housing market information, and impact evaluation of the mortgage market. TA also will be provided for HMF product development and piloting, Microfinance Banks (MFBs) staff training, consumer protection, impact evaluation, and related ancillary support services necessary for establishing sustainable HMF operations.