ABSTRACT
In most of the corruption
allegations in Nigeria, real estate acquisition is a common phenomenon. Corrupt
public office holders are been alleged of acquiring chains of properties in
different locations of the country. This paper focused on the reasons behind
acquisition of real estate by corrupt public officers and the manipulation in
land administration in Nigeria. Literatures were employed to achieve the aim.
It is not that these corrupt public officers can’t fulfill their real estate
investment dream in a just way, but some societal malfunctioning factors
encourage corruption when they were trying to fulfill their real estate
investment dream. Some of the factors that encourage corrupt public officers
resulting to corruptible means when they are trying to fulfill their real
estate investment are: absence of good mortgage system, anti-corruption policy,
prestige associated with property ownership e. It was also observed, that real
estate market can be a good indicator of corruption just like the financial
system if well harnessed. The following solutions were made to reduce real
estate acquisition with embezzled funds: Implementing functional mortgage
system, monitoring of property transactions, adopting of local building
materials, collaborating with built environment professionals, implementing
social housing scheme.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Public
debates recently in Nigeria have centered on the increasing rate of corruption
resulting from inappropriate public finance planning and implementation mostly
in some of the developing countries, Nigeria inclusive which in turn reduce the
level of growth in every sector of the economy including mortgage development
in the country. Corruption made itself visible when the institution of the
government was founded due the behaviour of people appoint or elect to manage
the government institutions (Anyanwu, 2002; Idomeh, 2006). Corruption has
recently become a major issue in foreign aid and Nigeria nation as a whole.
Corruption is an ancient practice that has been traced back to pre-biblical
time and made itself known in the ancient civilizations of developed and
developing countries. Political and social corruption is not a recent
phenomenon that pervades the Nigerian state. Corruption is a social problem
that has interested many scholars. Ruzindana (1999) sees corruption in Africa
as a problem of routine deviation from affordable standards and norms by public
officials and parties with whom they interact. The major concern for
inter-nation aid policy during the last five decades has been to improve the
living condition for the poor in the poorest countries of the world by way of
providing affordable housing development schemes.
Nigeria
has been described by many as a country not lacking in policy formulation, but
on implementation. Once a need is said to be detected, the governments swoop
into action by constituting a committee to look into the situation. The
committee begins to sit, formulates and presents a policy to the government who
in turn gives assent to it. This tradition is not peculiar to the mortgage and
housing policies alone, but it has contributed in no small measure, to the
failure of the housing programmes in the country. Despite the formulation of
brilliant policies capable of transforming the housing programmes in the
country, yet no significant improvement in the availability of affordable houses
in Nigeria.
There
was the 1991 National Housing Policy which reeled out so many rules and
programmes, that will change the lives of the average Nigeria for the better in
terms of home ownership. The policy in and of its own, was supposed to ensure
that the average Nigerian has access to decent housing and accommodation at
affordable cost by the year 2000, through the provision of long term loans at
an interest rate of not more than four per cent per annum. There was also the
2006 National Housing Policy which went the extra mile of partially disengaging
the government from involvement in housing programme and including private
investors and real estate developers into the national housing programmes, by
the end of the day, it all appeared like moving round a vicious circle, as
those policy were only good as documents and not in implementation (Anyanwu,
2012).
Mortgage
banking in Nigeria is said to have started in 1956 with the establishment of
the Nigeria Building Society. According Oduwaye (2014), the society collapsed
in the early 70s due to its inability to perform its statutory functions. This
led to government injecting N20m and changing its name to Federal Mortgage Bank
of Nigeria (FMBN). The FMBN took off in 1977, with a takeoff capital of N20 million
from the federal government. The FMBN was unable to meet up with the pressure
of demand. According to statistics, in 1970, outstanding application were
N223.8 million and available funds equaled N127.0 million, meaning that demand
and supply was in the ratio of 2:1. This degenerated to ratio 4:1 in 1986 when
the outstanding application increased to N465.8 million and only N105.3 million
was available. The bank has never been able to meet up with demand. The failure
of the FMBN over the years and acute shortage of housing led to the
promulgation of the National Housing Policy of 1991. As can be deduced from the
above, since government was never able to address each of the problems at their
various stages, they kept degenerating from bad to worse, until the present day
situation of 17 million housing deficit, which now appears insurmountable.
However, the researcher is examining the impact of corruption on mortgage and
housing development in Nigeria.
According
to experts, successive governments have never been serious about implementing
those policies and have never made adequate budget for mortgage financing with
a human face. According to Audu (2014), mortgage policies implementation are
very poor because the issue of housing is highly capital intensive, government,
both state and federal, do not make adequate budget for housing.
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The
need to study corruption especially on mortgage development in Nigeria has
continued to generate passionate commentaries and academic interest due to the
level of corruption in the country and its effect on the growth of every
sector. In Nigeria corruption is one of the reasons for many unresolved
problems that have critically hobbled and reduce housing development (Ayobolu,
2006). International centre for economic growth (1999) states that corruption
is a canker worm that has eaten deep in the fabric of the nation which ranges
from petty corruption to political or systematic corruption. Corruption has
affected mortgage development through poor implementation of policies,
diversion of funds etc. the researcher is examining the effect of corruption on
mortgage development in Nigeria.
1.3
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The
following are the objectives of this study:
1. To examine the challenges of mortgage
development in Nigeria.
2. To determine the level of real estate and
mortgage development in Nigeria.
3. To identify ways to combat corruption to
enhance mortgage development in Nigeria.
1.4
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What is the impact of corruption on mortgage
development in Nigeria?
2. What is the level of real estate and mortgage
development in Nigeria?
3. What are the ways to combat corruption to
enhance mortgage development in Nigeria?
1.5
HYPOTHESIS
HO:
Corruption does not have any impact on mortgage development in Nigeria.
HA:
Corruption does have impact on mortgage development in Nigeria.
1.6
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
following are the significance of this study:
1. The outcome of this study will educate the
government and policy maker, law enforcement agents on how to combat corruption
as a way of promoting mortgage development in Nigeria through proper policy
formulation and implementation.
2. This research will also serve as a resource
base to other scholars and researchers interested in carrying out further
research in this field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to provide
new explanation to the topic.
1.7 Scope/Limitations Of The Study
This
study on the impact of corruption on mortgage development in Nigeria will cover
all the mortgage policies formulated to enhance housing development in Nigeria
compared to the level of housing development in Nigeria. It will also cover the
corruption issues related to housing development in Nigeria.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial
constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher
in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the
process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will
simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently
will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
1.8
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Mortgage:
a legal agreement by which a bank, building society, etc. lends money at interest
in exchange for taking title of the debtor’s property, with the condition that
the conveyance of title becomes void upon the payment of the debt.
Corruption:
dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.
Development:
an event constituting a new stage in a changing situation.