The development of Nigeria’s housing market is key to growing the economy and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has declared.
Emefiele stated this at the opening ceremony of the 32nd Annual Conference and General Meeting of the African Union for Housing Finance (AUHF) in Abuja.
He identified non-availability of long term capital to boost mortgages as a major challenge crippling the country’s housing market, adding that the housing sector currently contributes less than one percent to the nation’s GDP while the housing market in the United States represents 80 per cent of the country’s GDP.
The CBN governor, who was represented by CBN’s Director, Other Financial Institutions Department, Dr Ahmed Abdullahi, lamented that Nigeria was lagging behind in comparism with other African housing markets.
His word: “You will find out that the market is less developed because the contribution of housing market to the GDP is less than one per cent,” he said.
The CBN governor revealed that the single largest financial asset class worldwide is in the United States’ housing market, noting that it’s more than the country’s capital market.
