By M.A. Egge
The Governor of the Central Bank of Somaliland, Eng Ali Abdillahi Dahir, has underpinned the need, importance and national significance of the Bank Real Estate Mortgage Act.
The banking chief emphasized the importance of the legal need in the financial sector of the Mortgage Act as he elaborately briefed the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives on the dispensation of the law whose Bill is before the parliament.
Mortgage is a legal agreement by which any bank or financial institutions such as building or saving and credit cooperative societies etc lends money at interest in exchange for retaining the title deeds of the debtor’s property, with the condition that the conveyance of title becomes void upon the payment of the debt impressed upon the committee that the law is there to catalyze marketing, trade, economic growth and general investments in the country.
The Central Bank formulated the Bill of the Mortgage Act, forwarded it to the cabinet where it was endorsed and is now before the parliament.
The bank chief executive told the media after briefing the parliamentary committee, “We have come to the House of Representatives to discuss the banking guarantees Mortgage Act whose Bill is in front of the House of Representatives, and to explain the importance of the Act to the nation and the growth of business in general”.
He continued, “It is a law created by the Central Bank whose Bill has been passed by the Council of Ministers and now is in front of the Parliament; this Act is very important for us as a nation, society and financial institutions. We are facilitating business and investment where the citizen who owns real estate can take an investment loan from the banks, and if the money is not duly repaid, the banks can auction the real estate of the person who took the loan”.
He noted that the Mortgage Act is long overdue and has been awaited for a long time.