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From Uche Usim, Abuja
With Nigeria’s housing deficit peaking at 28 million, the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenoP) has applauded the recommendation of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) for pension subscribers to use 25 per cent of their Retirement Savings Account (RSA) balance for residential mortgages.
This, it said, will go a long way in addressing the insufficient housing nightmare and ultimately grow the economy.
Available data shows that over N21 trillion would be needed to build modest houses to address the perennial shortage and improve the living conditions of Nigerians.
By inference, the real estate sector needs a staggering investment outlay of N21 trillion to provide houses for a growing population of over 200 million people.
Arising from that, the Chief Executive Officer Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOP), Oguche Agudah, at the 2023 journalists workshop organised by the PenCom in Abuja recently, hailed PenCom for allowing policyholders to use a fraction of their savings to acquire a home through a mortgage arrangement.
PenOp, the umbrella body of all the licensed Pension Fund Administrative firms in Nigeria, said the move will address the housing deficit horror.
Agudah, who delivered a paper on Improving Accessibility and Service Delivery in RSA Mortgage Financing.” added that Nigeria’s housing deficit ballooned from 7 million in 1991 to 28 million in 2023, a worrisome development that has left many people homeless and many cramped in overcrowded buildings.
Represented by Akinbola Akintola, the Research & Investment Lead at PenoP, he said: “According to the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria (AHCN), the homeownership rate in Nigeria is 25%, one of the lowest in the world
“As such, the new mortgage policy of PenCom, RSA holders could acquire their own home with 25 per cent of their pension savings, and will further ensure that people acquire properties even before retirement,”
Speaking further, he said: “One of the outstanding provisions of the Policy is that couples can apply, however, they must individually be individually eligible”.
Earlier at the event, PenCom said it released N3.1 billion to 187 RSA holders as 25 per cent of their contributions for a mortgage.
In 2022, PenCom released guidelines on how to access RSA balance, which could be used as an equity contribution for residential mortgages.
