Yemisi Izuora
The National Pension Commission, PenCom has released a list of approved primary mortgage banks to participate in the use of the Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs for residential mortgage
The Director-General of PenCom, Mrs Aishat Dahir-Umar approved of 34 mortgage banks.
Of the 34 banks, 18 are from Lagos, 8 from Abuja and 8 of them are from other states.
The mortgage lenders from Lagos are Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc; Brent Mortgage Bank LTD; AG Mortgage Bank Plc; Centagr Savings & Loans; City Code Savings & Loans; First Trust Mortgage Bank; Global Trust Mortgage; Haggai Mortgage; Homes-Base Mortgage; Imperial Homes; Jubilee-Life Mortgage Bank; Lagos Building & Investment; Prudential Mortgage Bank and Refuge Homes Savings & Loans.
Others from Lagos include Resort Savings & Loans; Safetrust Mortgage Bank; STB Building Society; Union Homes and Mayfresh Mortgage Bank.
Those from Abuja are Aso Savings & Loans; FHA Homes Ltd; First Generation Homes; Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank; MDSL Mortgage Bank LTD; Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank and Platinum Mortgage Bank
The remaining are from other states: Akwa Savings & Loans Ltd and Mutual Alliance both from Akwa Ibom; Coop Savings & Loans from Oyo State; Delta Trust Mortgage Bank; Gateway Mortgage Bank, Ogun State; Jigawa Savings & Loans, Jigawa state; Kebbi Stare Homes, Kebbi State and Living trust formally Omoluabi, Osun State.
It will be recalled that PenCom released guidelines to allow contributors of the Contributory Pension Scheme to access part of their RSAs for payment of equity contribution for residential mortgage.
It stated that this was in line with Section 89 (2) of the Pension Reform Act 2014, which allows RSA holders to use a portion of their RSA balance towards payment of equity for residential mortgage.
The guidelines cover pension contributors in active employment, either as a salaried employee or as a self-employed person.
It noted that the maximum amount to be withdrawn is 25 per cent of the total mandatory RSA balance as of the date of application, irrespective of the value of equity contribution required by the mortgage lender.
PenCom said the applicant must have an offer letter for the property duly signed by the property owner and verified by the mortgage lender.
On criteria for mortgage lenders, the guidelines stated that, “To qualify as a mortgage lender for this purpose, the company must be licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, comply with the Contributory Pension Scheme and have valid Pension Clearance Certificate. The commission shall publish names of the eligible mortgage lenders on its website
