In a bid to promote transparency and full disclosure, the Monetary Policy Committee decided that all lending rates by Deposit Money Banks will be made public to guide business decisions. The figures published reveal that GTBank’s prime mortgage lending rate is 8%. An impressive figure in relative terms, as the average mortgage rate in Nigeria as of August 2014 was 22.04%. The NMRC and Lagos HOMS are trying to bring lending rates to high single digits or very low double digits.

It is obvious that there will be complex clauses and ample fine print before anyone can access the 8% rate, and this may make it inaccessible to the larger population. A GTBank representative has been contacted for comments and clarity, check back for more updates.