Stop Rushing Repayments, Stick to Your Payment Plan — Dan Adjetey to Mortgagees
Head of Mortgage Banking and Customer Experience at Republic Bank Ghana,Dan Adjetey Mohenu has urged mortgagees to resist the urge to accelerate repayments and instead stick to their scheduled monthly installments. Speaking exclusively to Business Outlook Africa, Dan Adjetey argued that tying up excess liquidity in a mortgage payment can put undue pressure on their cash flow. “Let me put it that way fear in the sense that the individuals do not want to go the long term. I’ve seen mortgagees who come for the loan for 20 years and it’s like they are in a hurry to pay off and so instead of sticking to say their are GHC 2,000 monthly payment,Immediately, they take the mortgage,they want to increase it to GHC 5,000 so that they can pay off on time.These are assets.They are not bringing you any money now.So why are you committing a lot of liquidity ?” Dan stated Comparing Ghana’s mortgage industry to that of other African countries,Dan Adjetey placed Ghana’s industry way ahead arguing that that country does better in terms of financing than the rest. “I would place us a bit high, than all of them, compared to the likes of probably Nigeria, South Africa.You know, Nigeria is quite heavy on cash.And so you would have a number of people purchasing homes with cash, not necessarily going through mortgage.And I’m placing us high because of the financing aspect, not because of home acquisition.” Dan added Dan Adjetey however stated that despite improvements in mortgage awareness, significantly more work remains to be done not only in Ghana but on the whole continent particularly on the financing side . He noted that Africa as a continent continues to grapple with a massive housing deficit, pointing to a systemic failure across most African economies to provide long-term financing solutions for housing. “I would say that there’s still more to do, because when you read around, every country in Africa has a very huge housing deficit.And so it tells you that we are not practically doing what we have to do when it comes to access to the financing. And most of the African countries, to our economy, are more short-term basis.” He added Despite the challenges, Dan Adjetey expressed optimism about the trajectory of Ghana’s mortgage industry, projecting significant improvement within the next five to six years. He attributed this optimism to a generational shift currently underway in Ghana’s workforce, noting that young graduates entering the job market have already being exposed to mortgage financing education at the tertiary level. “And I know and I believe that in the next five, six years, we will get better when it comes to the financial system.Six years because, you know, we have young people now coming into the system, people who have left the university, they are looking for jobs. So usually it takes about five, six years for them to settle in. So our education has been from the school.So from the universities, from the tertiary institutions, trying to make them understand the opportunities that you have through mortgage financing.” he added








