News & Events

Resort Savings and Loans Set To Halt

Housing Deficit In Nigeria

....says future of housing is in mortgage

services

Efforts to deliver six million houses within four years to the people of Rivers state received a big boost recently in Port-Harcourt, when Resort Savings and Loans Plc (RSL) opened shop in the garden city. The mortgage bank’s arrival to the state was with the promise of taking the lead in mortgage and housing finance sub-s-ector of the industry. It is located at the Vicon House, on Stadium road at the heart of the garden city. Many guests, led by Ogu Emejuru, special assistant to the governor, Chibuike Amaechi, opened accounts with RSL to begin the journey to easy ownership of houses spread over many years. Emejuru said the administration was determined to deliver a mega city in Port-Harcourt and housing was a key component. He expressed readiness and willingness of the state government to partner with RSL to deliver affordable houses to the people in the coming years. According to Abimbola Olayinka, managing director, RSL, the mortgage bank was deeply involved in building estates around Nigeria beginning with Lagos and desired to bring the experience into the garden city. “ building port-harcourt What we want is land at affordable rates, and we would finance the estates,” he stated. What RSL has in mind, he disclosed, is to apply huge experience and funds to prove a worthy partner with the state government. With an authorised share capital of N10 billion, RSL was prepared to play a role in the housing revolution in the state. Olayinka maintained that RSL was established in 1992 with N5 billion authorised capital, and assured it would hit N20 billion by the end of 2012. In addition, the company is ready to partner with viable institutions and governments in the country to bring succour to the housing needs of the people. Some of the products offered to the customers include the easy lease, which is as low as N5,000 a month, and resort investment mortgage plans (RIMPLAN plus to RIMPLAN Corporate), where clients can save between N200,000 and N10,000 a month as minimum saving plans with tenure of between three and 24 months, and begin to draw loans for houses or other items of comfort. He made it clear that the future of housing in Nigeria is in mortgage and it would be difficult to bring about a revolution in the housing sector without mortgage system. Similarly, Joe Idudu, chairman, agreed with the managing director, saying RSL was primed to uplift the housing scheme in Nigeria. The central bank of Nigeria, he stressed, has revised the operational guidelines of PMIs, giving them power to receive deposits and maintain accounts for customers for the purpose of creating mortgage assets , credit facilities and financial services.