a housing estate in Abuja

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) said  it would commence “Rent to Own” scheme to ease the housing challenges in the country.

Mr Gimba Ya’u Kumo, the Managing Director of the bank, told newsmen in Abuja that the “Rent to Own’’ scheme was mainly for Nigerians who could not afford mortgages.

“For Nigerians that cannot afford mortgages, the way it is going to work is that houses will be built in conjunction with other agencies, either state government agencies or Federal Government agencies.

“FHA, for example, which is a Federal Government agency or FCT, will build the houses and will be taking rent on those houses up to a time you will be the one to decide how much rent you will be paying.

“If you think you will pay the cost of the house in 10 years as your rent, by the time you finish paying the rent, the house becomes your own.

“That is what we call “Rent to Own.”

Kumo explained that the buyer of the house would be the one to decide how much rent he or she would pay and the duration of the payment.

He said that instead of Nigerians being harassed by landlords because of rent, they could seize the opportunity provided by the bank to key into the scheme, to address such problem.

He said that apart from addressing the housing deficit in the country, the scheme would equally encourage and comfortably make one to have ownership of a house.

“We will start the pilot project in Lagos and Abuja only, because these areas are where you will see landlords harass Nigerians and that’s where we have high rate of tenancy.

“We hope to launch it before the year runs out because the templates are ready and some houses are ready for the take-off of the programme.’’