Leading indigenous cement producer, Lafarge Africa Plc, a member of LafargeHolcim, has taken its services in delivering construction and housing solutions to another with the unveiling of a target housing scheme tagged; ‘Easy Home’.
Coming as ‘Build Easy, Lafarge Pragmatic Affordable Housing Solution’, the company during a media interactive session in Lagos said the plan of the new initiative is to provide affordable homes to every class of people across Nigeria.
Giving more highlights, the Communication and Public Affairs Director of the Company, Folashade Ambrose-medebem revealed that “Easy Home is the first housing microfinance scheme in Nigeria, noting thar there have been 30,000 Easy Home beneficiaries in less than four years in 32 cities across Nigeria, with over €5m in funds has been obtained from the French Development Agency (AFD) and granted to Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO MFB)”.
Accordingly, the scheme is designed to serve as home construction solution for low income earners, where those whose earnings is between N20,000-N30,000 per month can conveniently own their homes.
Participants were made to understand that Lafarge Africa and its microfinance partners have created a new market by offering a shorter tenor – a maximum of two years – at the lowest interest rates possible.
She argued further that Nigerians need to accelerate building of homes because the population of the country increases 2.8 per cent yearly and is projected to be the world’s third largest by 2050.
Continuing, Ambrose-medebem said “There is currently a housing deficit of 17 million in Nigeria, amidst an urbanization rate of 4.7 per cent, where Nigerians build just a paltry 500,000 homes yearly, but with pragmatic initiatives like our’s, it’s possible for 10million urban households to be able to afford the cheapest house built by a developer while 9million urban households can build incrementally”.
Additional details made public by the director was that “Whereas, commercial banks have been offering typically high-end mortgages with longer tenors – a maximum of 20 years – and at a very high interest rates between 21percent – 25percent, but Lafarge Easy Home aims to reach one million”.
Explaining how the new deal works in a presentation, Mr. Aurélien ‘Omowale Boyer, said LafargeHolcim has launched the Affordable Housing program in 25 countries and five continents, with one in North America, three in South America, 13 in Africa, two in Europe, one in the Middle East and five in Asia
He noted further that the program helped 445,000 people in these 25 countries own a home and aims to reach 25 million people worldwide by 2030.
