Mortgage Bank Partners Firm To Tackle Housing Deficit

In other to strengthen Nigeria’s housing delivery system, AG Mortgage Bank Plc and Cutstruct Technologies Limited have launched an integrated housing finance initiative aimed at curbing fund diversion, improving project completion rates.

The initiative which was unveiled in Lagos, was attended by developers, regulators, financiers, and technology stakeholders.

Speaking at the event, the managing director and chief executive officer of AG Mortgage Bank, Mr. Ngozi Anyogu, said the initiative forms part of the bank’s broader strategy to build a collaborative and disciplined mortgage ecosystem.

He explained that the bank views developers not merely as loan beneficiaries but as strategic partners within a shared value chain.

Anyogu said, sustainable growth in housing requires alignment among financiers, developers, regulators and technology providers, saying that systemic issues in real estate can only be resolved through coordinated reform anchored on transparency and mutual trust.

Delivering a keynote address titled, ‘Strategies for Sustainable Funding’, the executive director, AG Mortgage Bank, Dr. Edwin Idegwu stated that fund diversion in the real estate sector is often structural rather than behavioural.

According to him, weak funding frameworks create liquidity pressures across multiple project sites, forcing developers into difficult financial decisions.

He identified volatile building material prices, inflation, supply chain disruptions and poorly aligned disbursement schedules as key destabilising factors.

“Even credible developers struggle to deliver when the underlying funding system is weak,” Idegwu noted.

He explained that the AG Mortgage-Cutstruct framework is designed to strengthen developers’ bankability rather than restrict them, stressing that transparent systems lower systemic risk and reduce the overall cost of capital.

Idegwu further disclosed that credit assessment under the framework would increasingly prioritise measurable delivery performance over traditional collateral metrics, signalling a shift toward performance-driven lending.

The founder and chief executive officer of Cutstruct Technologies Limited, Mr. John Oamen, said access to structured and transparent financing remains a major constraint for many developers.

He observed that numerous viable projects stall not for lack of demand or technical expertise, but because funding is misaligned or delayed.

Oamen described the collaboration as a strategic move to restore confidence in the ecosystem by providing structured capital to developers while offering lenders clearer visibility into credible projects.

Also speaking, the Group managing director of Copen Group, Dr. Ugochukwu Chime, said capital is rarely the main constraint in housing finance, noting that investor confidence and predictable systems determine funding flows.

The president of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Oba Akintoye Adeoye, commended AG Mortgage for the initiative, describing it as consistent with the Federal Government’s housing reform objectives.

Stakeholders agreed that beyond capital injection, reform across financing, procurement and digital governance is crucial to sustainable housing delivery.