EXPERT URGES GOVERNMENT TO CREATE VIRILE CREDIT SYSTEM

The President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr. Bode Adediji, has said that the government must create an environment for a virile mortgage system.

He said, 'I find it difficult why a country like Nigeria has failed to develop what I call a virile mortgage institution and credit culture, making it inevitable for ordinary people to base our lives on cash and carry.'

He stressed that it was not good for the individual, system and for Nigeria.

Adediji stressed that whatever might be the problem of conception or implementation in the country, it should be a challenge to anyone to have a most virile mortgage system for the citizens.

He noted, 'A situation where a person has left school for about 10 years and he or she cannot boast of a one bedroom flat that he can call his own, it is unfortunate.'

He said, 'In South Africa today, as soon as you are able to grab a job, within two years, it is the mortgage companies that pursue you because they know that you have the desire and intention to own your house and they have the money to loan you and you also have the income to pay back the balance.'

He said, 'Nigeria's problem with the bank is not lack of money but the sincerity of purpose to follow a policy that ought to have been created by the government to use our internal resources to develop our own country.'

Adediji emphasised that Nigeria could not use its resources to develop other countries.

He also noted that though the country had corrupt citizens, the situation would have been different if the money stolen was kept within the country.

He said, '90 per cent of the money stolen in the country is taking outside to develop other nations. This money could have been used to create jobs and opportunity in the country.'

He further said that capital flight was unthinkable and unpatriotic.