‘Solving housing deficit needs better plan’

The Chief Executive Officer, TobyKemsworth Investment Limited, Adekunle Raphael-Monehin, has said closing housing deficit gap in Nigeria will require an approach that recognises depleting earning power of average Nigerians.

Raphael-Monehin stated this recently during an event on the first-year anniversary of the company’s home ownership scheme – Rabanaire.

Rabanaire is a home ownership initiative scheme through which subscribers can make down payments and then make referrals to complete a matrix before reaching eligibility for home ownership.

According to Raphael-Monehin, Rabanaire was launched to enable Nigerians become homeowners without necessarily gathering the bulk funds needed to build a house.

He said, “Rabanaire is a concept that we introduced that brought about crowdfunding, because the alternative funding for real estate is crowdfunding.

“We are sure that affordability of housing is key to home ownership, and with the experience we have had, we found that even the government has not been able to ensure affordable housing.”

The Country Director of Rabanaire, Priscilla Irabor, said according to an industry report, only 20 per cent of Nigerians own their own homes.

She added that Rabanaire had gained widespread acceptance in Nigeria and the company recently unveiled operations in Porto Novo in Benin Republic.