Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), and Alpha Mead Development Company (AMDC), a strategic business unit of a leading total real estate solutions company of Alpha Mead Group, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve access to quality and affordable homes in the country.
The MoU, which was signed at the just concluded 11th Abuja Housing Show, will allow AMDC and NMRC to work together on housing finance, training, research, advisory and project structuring to increase the stock of affordable housing in the country. It will also provide and permit relevant technical support and advice to Alpha Mead in relation to the residential real estate market in Nigeria.
Furthermore, the partnership between both parties is expected to make it easier and faster for customers pre-qualified by AMDC to access mortgage from members of financial institutions under NMRC.
Speaking during the signing ceremony in Abuja, Prof. Charles Inyangete, Managing Director/CEO, NMRC, described the MoU as a remarkable move, saying that NMRC decided to work with Alpha Mead because of its innovative and technology-driven approach to increase affordable housing stock in Nigeria and the facilities management expertise of the company to also maintain the projects after construction.
“The combination of these capacities that Alpha Mead bring to the partnership will give the market the assurance that property prices can be sustained, going forward and we can all deliver to the specific needs of the customers.
“So, we at NMRC decided to key into this relationship because we will like to see this Alpha Mead model succeed. We believe it is a model that will allow more and more transactions in the housing development value chain and feed our member institutions with more projects to finance”, NMRC boss said.
On his side, Femi Akintunde, an engineer and Group Managing Director of Alpha Mead, expressed delight at the partnership, describing the partnership is a serious demonstration of NMRC’s commitment to reducing the nation’s increasing housing deficit, and encouraging recognition of Alpha Mead’s innovative approach to delivering quality and affordable housing to Nigerians.
According to him, “It is increasingly becoming obvious that the conventional building methods cannot bridge Nigerian housing gap, especially in the face of the myriad of challenges that face the affordable housing value chain. So, what we bring to the market are the possibilities of addressing the challenges of affordability and quality; which are two critical issues that are inhibiting the nation’s affordable housing market”.
Akintunde noted that the current structure of the market makes it a tall order for people in the middle-income bracket to own homes because of the high entry barrier. He also pointed to the challenges of lack of skilled artisans, the high cost of building materials, and lack of standardised building and quality processes as having adverse effects on the quality of building in the market.
“So, on the one hand, we are addressing the issue of quality by using technology that guarantees repeated quality, straight edges and structural integrity; and on the other hand, we are addressing the challenges of affordability by using our technology to achieve up to 15 per cent savings for our customers”, Akintunde said.
Source: Vanguard
