Th e leadership of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company Plc (NMRC) was among the leading business moghuls and mortgage fi nance houses that participated at the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) U.S. and Africa Business Summit in Washington DC. The summit, which provided global platform for mortgage finance houses to brainstorm on collection and sharing especially on investment and development in Africa, was necessitated by the inadequate data on core developmental issues. At the summit, participants dwelled on how lack data and adequate information were hampering a smooth Africa and the U.S. investment relationship.
Th e NMRC’s Chief Executive Offi cer, Professor Charles Inyangete took advantage of the summit to engage other mortgage fi nance bosses on mortgage issues. Contributing to the discourse: “Expanding Digital Financial Inclusion and Data: How Information Will Transform Business in Africa”, he unveiled NMRC’s Mortgage Market System (MMS) and Housing Market Information Portal (HMIP) adducing that there were the innovative technologies which have consolidated Nigeria’s fragmented housing market. Prof. Inyangette also disclosed that these innovations had given the NMRC the ample chance to unlock mortgage value driven by data and technology in view of the fact that data is considered the next frontier for value creation in business globally.
Inyangete lamented that despite the signifi cant strides in technology that have enabled Africa to leapfrog traditional financial development, growth is still stifl ed by challenges that include policy and infrastructure. Further, he quoted the Economist which in 2014 described Africa as “the continent of missing data”, adding that this underlines the need for data to drive evidence-based decisions by businesses, investors, and policy makers amongst others. Th e summit revealed that about 168 million people will become connected in Africa in the next fi ve years – the bulk of this will no doubt be in Nigeria. Th e summit, which was attended by about 800 leading leading African and U.S. business associations focused trade and investment. Th e sessions at CCA’s biennial signature event – the U.S. and Africa Business Summit – primarily featured private sector solutions and how public-sector actors could support business through the provision of an enabling environment. The speakers included Wilbur Ross, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, and Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
