New private-public initiative to meet housing needs

• Ogun creates home charter centres ahead of launch

GOING by calculations, the soon-to-be-launched Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) would open up the stagnated mortgage sector with lending rates expected to crash and tenors increasing to 20 years by mortgage banks.

  The development, which has already affected prevailing rates in the sector, though marginally, is a public-private initiative, which has the Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN) as private sector constituent.

  President of MBAN, Femi Johnson, while speaking with journalists on the development, said the initiative was scripted to be a refinancing vehicle for mortgage banks and facilitator of long-term loans for the sector and would also fully effect the projections by the first quarter of 2014.

  “The successful take-off of the NMRC will make access to affordable housing a reality for the majority of Nigerians. NMRC will provide the opportunity for rebuilding our housing finance system to a stronger, more competitive and more resilient one that is at par with the systems in developed economies.

  In another development, Ogun State government has created centres for its new homeowners’ charter programme to enable the citizens have direct access to the programme. The centres have been strategically located to make people regularise their documents with dedicated staff providing service to them.

  The state Commissioner for Physical and Urban Planning, Mr. Gbenga Otenuga, stated that the centres were created to avoid the problem of third-party in the process of regularising the documents by the people. People have the benefit of visiting the centres themselves without operating through third-party as the government has created direct access for them.

  The MBAN chief said: “NMRC is a public-private partnership initiative, unlike the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. It is not subsidised, but the Federal Government is supporting the scheme to ensure that rates come down and the target is to get rates reduced to 13 per cent.

  “As we all know, a well functioning housing finance system is imperative for a prosperous economy. It indeed plays an important role in stimulating economic growth and creating much-needed jobs within an economy.

  “Housing delivery remains crucial and continues to encounter the same challenge of inadequate long term financing. Rapid urbanisation, a growing population, limited land availability in some areas, access for lower income groups and dearth of long-term funds continue to put increasing pressures on current housing finance and delivery systems.

  “Mortgage lending has been typically small, poorly accessible, with low depository base, while mortgage finance providers have been vulnerable to significant credit, liquidity and interest rate risks due to their inability to mobilise sufficient long-term and affordable financial resources required for housing.

  Otenuga stated that Governor Ibikunle Amosun is passionate to ensure that all property owners benefit from the charter as part of his mission to rebuild the state and also engender urban renewal and development.

  He said the centres would be opened immediately Amosun formally unveils the charter programme in Abeokuta on Monday December 16, 2013.

  Otenuga further encouraged homeowners to take advantage of the offer to benefit from the urban renewal programme of the state government and also safeguard their property. This is because the fees have been discounted while penalties and fines are waived in line with the provision of the charter programme. The fees were extremely reduced to cushion the effects of the economic situation in the country.

  The Homeowners’ Charter Programme is to enable homeowners regularise the legal status and documentation of their property.

  It is expected that property with regularised documents will benefit from Ogun State government’s urban renewal policy through effective planning of facilities in the areas of education, health and other essential infrastructure.

    By Chijioke Nelson and Adeniyi Idowu Adunola

Websense, SecureData boost data security with new software solution

TO protect sensitive information in this era of data explosion amidst security threats, Websense TRITON Solution, and its partner, SecureData have introduced new software solution to mitigate such risks.
   Speaking at the launch of the solution, Websense 7.8 version, the Channel Manager, West Africa, SecureData Africa, Biodun Adewoye, said the event was organized to map the APT into the Nigerian landscape, specifically for the financial sector and large corporate companies.
   “The arrival of new, multifaceted and complicated attacks will require an understanding of what controls and strategies will needed to be deployed now and in the near future.
  He added that all these needed to be achieved by corporates without incurring crippling costs and complicated policy developments and technical deployments.
   With the release of additional advanced security capabilities in the Websense 7.8 release, “we are confident that the targeted attack can be mitigated and risk levels reduced at an effective ROI.”
  The solution is consolidated on web security, email security, and date loss prevention (DLP) into a highly flexible and scalable architecture that unifies content analysis, platforms and security management.
   The risk of identity theft, fines and lawsuits are exponential in today’s fast-paced digital age. It is truly a breakthrough in the world of data security solutions
   He said, “the integration is easy and simply but very powerful Solution. Secure Date is the largest Focus IT security Distributor within Africa.”
   “In Secure Data our approach is around security is very unique, we don’t push product but provide solution. We address it from security domains such as devices security, network security wireless security application security amongst other.’
     “We are creating awareness so that people and company we see the needs to protect their corporate date and information and also to use the product and see how it can benefit and add value to the organization.”




By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola

Group tasks govt, others on violence against women

A  HUMAN rights group, BAOBAB, has called for collective  effort in fighting violence against women and for the Federal Government to domesticate international treaties meant to check the crime.
  Speaking at a forum in Lagos with the title: “Peace in Home to Peace in the World; Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women”, the Executive Director of BAOBAB, Anne Adidu-Lawal, said violence against women is a menace of great concern in Nigeria and the world over.
  “The violence has continued to be one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent causes of human rights abuses in the world.
  “The manifestation of some of these violence include deeply rooted obnoxious culture practice such as female genital mutilation (FGM), widowhood rites, early or forced marriages and rape,” Adidu-Lawal added.

 By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola

Group seeks support for pro-disable projects

AS the world celebrates the International Day for People with Disabilities, the Ephaphata Hope Foundation, a group committed to distributing wheelchairs to the disable and creating awareness on issues affecting wheelchair users, has called for support to enable them to execute their projects.
   Speaking at the event tagged: “I am a flower”, the Chief Executive Officer of Ephaphata Hope Foundation, Rita Nkechi Ofili, who is also physically-challenged, said the greatest concerns of persons with disability is that they feel insecure, emotionally temperament and loss of self control and confidence in themselves.
  “Most parents with disable child(ren) are afraid of what people will say or call them, hence they tend to abandon, kill or hide such child with disability,” she said.

By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola

Bank boss seeks revival of industrial sector

The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank Plc., Dr. Alex Otti, has said that for Nigeria to attain its target as a developed country, it needs to revive the industrial sector, alongside infrastructure.

  Otti, who was the guest speaker at the Hallmark Public Policy Forum in Lagos, with the theme: “Saving the Future: Challenges of the New Nigeria”, said: “nations compete to offer the most productive environment for business. Competitiveness depends on productivity, with which a nation uses its human, capital and natural resources.”

  He pointed that the country was ranked 147 out of 189 countries surveyed in ease of doing business, even as it recorded low rating in the areas of electricity provision, property registration, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and payment of taxes.

  He also noted that the big challenge for the Nigerian economy is its mono-cultural profile with crude oil as its major income earner.

  Also speaking at the forum, the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Central Bank of Nigeria, Alhaji Suleiman Barau said that micro-economic indices show that Nigeria is on the right track to attaining significant growth and development, but explained that the country needs to improve on the area of leadership.

   “Nigeria needs to improve on the quality of its leadership to be able to compete in the comity of nations.

  “We can improve on our leadership. It is an area of challenge that we need to improve on. We need to elect credible leaders. We have credible leaders but we need to hold them accountable.

   “If we have a leader that is disciplined, sets agenda and implements it and we hold him accountable and with our potentials, we would be on top as one of the greatest countries in the world, at least in Africa,” he said.

By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola