Reps move to reform 69-year-old Trustee Investment Act

By Gift ChapiOdekina, Abuja

The House of Representatives has begun moves to reform Nigeria’s 69-year-old Trustee Investments Act, while seeking a coordinated regulatory framework to tackle fraud, fragmented property records and weak consumer protection in the real estate sector.

Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, said the proposed reforms were aimed at modernising the country’s legal framework to reflect changing financial and investment realities, while protecting the interests of beneficiaries and investors.

Abbas, represented by a member of the House representing Lafia/Obi Federal Constituency, Nasarawa State, Dahiru Abubakar Sarki, spoke on Monday at a public hearing on the Trustee Investment Act (Repeal and Enactment) Bill, 2026, at the National Assembly, Abuja.

The bill, sponsored by Solomon Bob, seeks to repeal and replace the existing Trustee Investments Act of 1957, which Abbas described as outdated in the face of developments in Nigeria’s capital market and emerging investment opportunities.

He said the existing law was enacted in a substantially different economic and financial environment, noting that the investment landscape had changed considerably over the past seven decades.

According to him, capital markets have expanded, financial instruments have become more sophisticated, and new opportunities for investment and wealth creation have emerged, making legislative reform necessary.

“The challenge is to strike the right balance between preserving trust assets and enabling reasonable returns on investment.

“An excessively restrictive framework may deny beneficiaries legitimate opportunities for growth, while an inadequately regulated one may expose their assets to imprudent decisions and avoidable risks,” he said.

Abbas stressed that expanded investment opportunities under the proposed legislation must be accompanied by strong safeguards, clear fiduciary responsibilities, effective risk management and appropriate regulatory oversight.

He said trustees must be guided by prudence, integrity and transparency, adding that assets held in trust must be managed in the interests of beneficiaries rather than for the personal advantage of trustees.

The Speaker said a credible framework for managing trust investments could contribute to deeper capital markets and more effective mobilisation of domestic resources to support infrastructure development and economic growth.

He urged stakeholders to pay particular attention to investment categories, diversification requirements, fiduciary obligations, professional delegation and regulatory oversight in considering the bill.

Seeks coordinated real estate regulation

In a related development, Abbas has called for a coordinated national real estate regulatory system to tackle property fraud, eliminate institutional overlaps and strengthen investor confidence in Nigeria’s housing market.

He made the call in a keynote address at a stakeholders’ conference on the proposed National Real Estate Regulatory Authority, organised by the House Committee on Housing and Habitat, chaired by Abdulmumin Jibrin, in Abuja.

Abbas said Nigeria’s real estate challenge was not a shortage of property but a lack of confidence in the ownership, verification and regulation of land and property transactions.

“Nigeria does not lack property. Nigeria lacks enough trust in property,” he said.

He identified multiple land ownership claims, fragmented approval processes, unverifiable property titles and inadequate protection for off-plan buyers as major obstacles driving up housing costs and discouraging investment.

The Speaker proposed that the planned authority should maintain a verifiable register of regulated developers, estate agents and projects to enable prospective buyers to establish the identity, licensing status and compliance records of operators before making payments.

He also recommended that funds paid by buyers for qualifying off-plan developments be kept in protected accounts, with withdrawals tied to independently verified construction milestones.

On technological innovation, Abbas advocated a legislative sandbox framework to allow property technology companies to test new products and services under controlled regulatory conditions.

He said the framework should accommodate innovations such as electronic conveyancing, digital escrow, automated compliance checks, remote verification and new housing finance models without weakening consumer protection and anti-money laundering requirements.

Abbas also proposed a Unified National Real Estate Enforcement Architecture to connect the activities and records of federal and state regulators, professional bodies and law enforcement agencies.

He said the current regulatory environment was characterised by overlapping responsibilities, disconnected databases and multiple approval processes, forcing property developers and investors to navigate several government institutions.

According to him, the proposed system should assign unique identification numbers to regulated property projects, maintain verifiable compliance records for licensed operators and provide a common platform for receiving complaints and referring cases to relevant enforcement agencies.

He cited the involvement of several institutions in land administration, planning approvals, construction supervision and financial regulation as evidence of the need for better coordination.

The Speaker warned that weak property verification systems could also create opportunities for money laundering, corruption and organised financial crimes.

“This is not a shortage of institutions. It is a shortage of connection, clarity and consequence,” he said.

MOFI fund deploys N140bn

On housing finance, Abbas disclosed that the MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund had deployed N140 billion through 21 financial institutions as of August 2026, creating 2,018 mortgages across 27 states.

He said the mortgages offered repayment periods of up to 20 years at a fixed interest rate of 9.75 per cent.

However, he argued that increased access to housing finance must be matched with stronger property regulation to protect beneficiaries from fraudulent titles, abandoned projects and unregulated operators.

“Finance without trust cannot reach scale. Regulation without finance cannot deliver enough homes. We need both,” he said.

Abbas outlined a legislative roadmap that would include mapping existing regulatory mandates, establishing minimum consumer protection standards, creating a PropTech sandbox, developing a national enforcement architecture and implementing the proposed reforms in phases.

He said the initial phase should prioritise a national register, a project verification portal, a complaints platform and agreed enforcement protocols.

The Speaker urged participants at the conference to produce concrete recommendations, including a clear mandate for the proposed authority, a map of federal and state responsibilities, a consumer protection charter, a technical framework for interoperable property data and an implementation timetable.

He assured stakeholders that the House would provide the legislative pathway for the reforms, while calling on the Executive, state governments, private sector operators and professional bodies to play their respective roles in building a transparent and investment-friendly property market.