There is a loan for everyone with a house lot
— Dr Nanda Gopaul
IMMEDIATE Past Chairman of the New Building Society Limited (NBS), now Minister of Labour, Dr. Nanda Gopaul, has acknowledged the contribution of Government’s aggressive housing drive to the society’s growth. He was speaking at the official opening of the spanking new Head Office Building of the NBS, located at North Road and Avenue of the Republic, in Georgetown.
Dr Gopaul said the institution was created under the Laws of Guyana, Chapter 36:21 in 1940. “…we started business coming into being from a smaller housing society that had 39 properties under its care, with a loan mortgage of about $77,000 then,” Dr. Gopaul said that the Society was then located on Main Street.
He said the society moved to its former Head Office on Avenue of the Republic in 1965, by which time it had lent nearly $2M to about 1,500 families, and the society grew.
In 1983, the Society surpassed the $100M mark; and between 1990 and 1998, assets moved to the range of nearly $11B dollars; while, to date, it has moved to $45B.
“This growth has been because of the aggressive government housing drive, coupled with aggressive marketing and the establishment of offices at seven locations throughout this country,” he noted.
“We have worked with our team of lawyers and we have been able to push housing loans not only aggressively, but efficiently. We have removed the bottlenecks which previously prevailed,” he elaborated, adding, “I doubt whether a single ordinary man would approach the doors of New Building Society for a loan and would be turned down. There is a loan for everyone, once you have a house lot under your name.”
To this end, he said the society has developed with the Ministry of Housing, in collaboration with the Finance Ministry, a programme wherein it can disburse loans to persons “once they have a letter of assurance” from the Housing Ministry.
“Under our existing programme, there should be no scope for empty lots in these schemes being developed by the government,” he contended.
Dr Gopaul said those who are afraid to venture into building should know that “once you have the lot, the NBS will guarantee you the loan.”
He stated that the repayment rate is low, and even cheaper than renting a bottom flat in any part of this country.
“Our loan is the cheapest and is the most affordable for the ordinary man,” he declared.
In 2005, he said, the Society decided to have a new office, and in January 2009, the sod-turning was done by former President Bharrat Jagdeo, who encouraged the society throughout the journey.
To this end, he said, Jagdeo has played a tremendous and influential role in developing not only the NBS, but “the entire financial sector in Guyana underwent a transformation that one couldn’t imagine happening 15 years ago”.
Dr. Gopaul said that, despite some challenges, the building was completed, a trial test was done, the Society moved into the building, and the staff started to use the building with pride, which is important.
“I want to pay a special tribute to all the directors who would have come before us, who participated in the conceptualization of this new move,” he expressed. “We have had also greater demands for a higher level of loans, and we have the finance to facilitate those requests; and our members have passed and approved a $15M ceiling, conscious of the fact that the Society will be better off and the nation would be better off if we can facilitate a bigger spread,” he stated.
“Right now, we have a serious challenge with liquidity on our hands, and very often we don’t get Treasury Bills and we have to leave billions sometimes earning one percent in the commercial bank, but we want to utilize that in some other loans,” he said.
“We will again write to the authorities to request that we move from the $12M ceiling to the $15M ceiling, which will cater for the middle income bracket,” Dr Gopaul said.
He thanked the staff of NBS, contractors and engineers who would have cooperated with the Society to see “this beautiful building being put into use and being open today”.