3 weeks ago
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In the latest of several announcements that the government-owned Jamaica Mortgage Bank, JMB, is to be divested, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness affirmed that shares in the financial institution will be offered to stock market investors within months.
Speaking on Tuesday at the unveiling of a JMB-financed residential complex in Kingston, called The Nitram of Waterloo, Holness said the JMB would be privatised and continue to finance construction in the upper segments of the market, National Housing Trust and the Housing Agency of the Jamaica would focus on the middle to lower segments of the housing market.
“If you look at the sources through which the government provides assistance to the housing market, we have allowed the JMB to focus on lower-middle, middle and higher income. For that reason, we are going to divest the JMB. So the Jamaica Mortgage Bank, in a few more months, will be on the stock exchange. You can buy into it, give it some more resources so it can fund more projects like these, in collaboration with the private sector.
“We will then target and focus, as we have been doing, the HAJ and the NHT, on developing more of the middle-lower, lower and affordable housing solutions,” Dr Holness said.
Established in 1971, the JMB is a statutory body that now falls under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, which, in turn, is under the Office of the Prime Minister.
Plans to divest the JMB date back more than a decade.
In 2010, the then government said the mortgage bank was to be sold to private investors via the equities market, and a consultant was appointed by the Cabinet for this purpose.
In 2019, an enterprise team was established to oversee the privatisation, with the Development Bank of Jamaica as the spearheading agency.
In 2021, the Development Bank of Jamaica said the divestment was awaiting Cabinet approval.
In 2022, then Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke announced again that an initial public offering for shares in JMB would be launched the following fiscal year via the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
In 2024, the divestment was again said to be on track via the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
Asked about the prime minister’s latest announcement on Tuesday that the divestment was now months away, a source close to the matter described the announcement as “aspirational”.
Holness said the divestment through the stock market would allow Jamaicans from all income levels to own shares in the entity, much like the Wigton wind farm and TransJamaican Highway offerings.
“I know that when we bring the Jamaica Mortgage Bank (to market), the same thing will happen. We’re going to be creating wealth for the average Jamaican,” the prime minister said.
JMB General Manager Courtney Wynter, speaking at the Nitram function, said the mortgage bank had significantly contributed to the growth of the country’s housing stock over the past 53 years.
“This is evident with the financing of approximately 60 per cent of Portmore and more recently the financing of the UWI dormitories, the Long Mountain housing project, and countless housing projects across the length and breadth of Jamaica,” Wynter said.
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