Mortgage finance remains a serious challenge affecting housing delivery in the country, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Ms Amal Pepple has said.

Speaking at the mortgage finance round table held in Abuja, Pepple disclosed that in a few interactive session organised by the Central Bank in collaboration with the World Bank and the United Nation's department for International Development (DFID) , the government is yet to come to a point agreement regarding how the mortgage finance system should be restructured to ensure improved access to housing in the country.

"We, therefore, need to ponder on how to improve accessibility to mortgage finance in order to stem the present trend whereby most home owners in the country rely on their personal savings to build their houses. In spite of the growing mortgage market in Nigeria, the mortgage to debt ratio, which is a factor of mortgage penetration, is less than 4 percent. Using the figures published in the Africa 2011 year book of the centre for affordable housing in Africa, Nigeria has one of the lowest mortgage penetration on the continent in terms of mortgage to debt at less than 4 percent compared to South Africa at 30 percent, Namibia 20 percent, Morocco at 15 percent and Tunisia at 13 percent. Other countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, Botswana, Senegal, Algeria and Uganda also fared better on the scale in spite of their low ratings," said the minister.