Monthly Archives: September 2020

The story featured prominently on page one of the newspaper: Bail increase sought for South Davis sex-assault suspect. In addition to the story, a mugshot of the suspect.

The man is accused of attempting to rape a woman on a South Davis bike path last monthan alarming crime to be sure. And there isat least on the surfacesolid evidence in the form of a fingerprint. But the Davis Enterprise is behind the times here, as most papers across the country have stopped running mugshots.

The Tampa Bay Times announced in June that they will no longer publish mugshot galleries of the recently arrested, amid concerns they disproportionately show black and brown faces. The paper said it will still publish mug shots relevant to particular stories, but not in its gallery format.

The galleries lack context and further negative stereotypes, Tampa Bay Times executive editor Mark Katches said in a statement. We think the data is an important resource that our newsroom will continue to analyze and watch carefully, but the galleries alone serve little journalistic purpose.

In July, the Sacramento Bee went further, announcing it will limit the publication of police booking photos, surveillance photos and videos of alleged crimes, and composite sketches of suspects provided by law enforcement agencies.

The paper wrote: Publishing these photographs and videos disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness, while also perpetuating stereotypes about who commits crime in our community.

The Bee has taken several recent steps to work against long-standing stereotypes. We have largely banned the use of the word looting a term rooted in racism and have sought to elevate the voices of emerging writers from communities we have long underserved through our Community Voices project, said Bee President and Editor Lauren Gustus. And building trust takes time. Our intention with this policy change is to take another step forward.

Most mainstream media outlets have published police booking photos, known as mugshots, for decades. The photos are generally provided by law enforcement when they arrest or charge suspects.

But, as the Bee noted, Their publication can have a permanent damaging effect on individuals and communities.

The problem of course is that these represent arrests and suspicion. The individual may be released. They may have their charges dropped. They may be acquitted. They may plead to lesser charges.

Yet the mugshot of that person in police custody remains, the Bee wrote.

This is part of a growing trend. In July as well, The San Francisco Police Department said it would no longer release mug shots because they reinforce racial biases, joining a growing movement by newspapers and broadcasters to curtail their use.

Chief William Scott announced in July that his department will no longer even release mug shots, and there was an immediate public safety reason to do so.

This policy emerges from compelling research suggesting that the widespread publication of police booking photos in the news and on social media creates an illusory correlation for viewers that fosters racial bias and vastly overstates the propensity of Black and brown men to engage in criminal behavior, Chief Scott said in a statement.

Back in February, even before the racial consciousness triggered by the death of George Floyd, the Marshall Project reported, Newsrooms Rethink a Crime Reporting Staple: The Mugshot.

The Marshall Project cited the lasting impact of putting these photos on the internet, where they live forever, (and) media outlets are increasingly doing away with the galleries of people on the worst days of their lives.

Mugshot slideshows whose primary purpose is to generate page views will no longer appear on our websites, Mark Lorando, a managing editor at the Houston Chronicle, explained in an email to the Marshall Project. Were better than that.

Thank you, @HoustonChron for doing the right thing, tweeted Jason Spencer, spokesman for the Harris County Sheriffs Office. Im hopeful that other media outlets and law enforcement agencies will follow your lead and rethink the practice of publicly shaming arrested people who havent been convicted of a crime.

The Marshall Project noted, Some news organizationsincluding The Marshall Projectavoid mugshots altogether. The New Haven Independent, a nonprofit news site in Connecticut, doesnt typically use images or even names of people whove been arrested.

Johnny Perez, a formerly incarcerated New Yorker who is currently director of U.S. prison programs for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, told the Marshall Project, It reaffirms existing biased and creates biases where none exist. People of color are already more likely to be found guilty than their white counterparts.

It creates this situation where youre criminalizing folks before theyre convicted of any crime, he said, noting that the existence of mugshots on the internet, where theyre easily searchable, can make it hard for people to get jobs.

Thats the key herearrest doesnt equate to having committed a crime. But the photos are often up permanently and make it hard for people whether or not they have committed the crime to escape their past. They play into stereotypes. And for the most part they serve a limited purpose.

When they do serve a public safety purpose, editors and journalists can decide on a case by case basis whether to publish the photos.

In the meantime, it is time for the local paper to catch up to the times with the rest of the countryespecially in a progressive community like Davis.

David M. Greenwald reporting

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Monday Morning Thoughts: Newspapers All Over Country Have Stopped Running Mugshots, Not the Enterprise - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

By David M. Greenwald

Yolo Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Elections (YCDIE) on Saturday afternoon held a candidates forum for the City Council candidates and the Supervisor candidates for the Fourth District.

The first question went to all candidates. Later questions were asked to specific groups, with all candidates running for the same office answering the same questions.

What have you done personally or professionally to address racism or inequity in our community?

Board of Supervisor District 4 Candidates

Linda Deos said that she has been an advocate her entire personal and professional life for racial justice issues. She talked about fighting racial discrimination in employment contracts and helping people to get their jobs back.

She said, I have found what needs to happen is change from the inside. It cant be done from the outside. Its our institutions that need to have systemic change.

She mentioned that we see it here in Yolo County where we have three percent of the population African American, Black, and 25 percent of the jail population is African American/Blackthat has to change.

She also argued, We need to be looking at redefining what public safety means.

Jim Provenza mentioned his long history of working with the ACLU and marching on Farm Worker issues, even before he became an attorney.

He said, I handled some complex employment and housing discrimination cases obtaining consent decrees, meaning orders that stopped the discrimination in the future in addition to helping the individual involved.

When he was on the school board, he said, I advocated for issues of addressing the achievement gap between students, which is still an important issue at the schools. I made that my priority.

On the Board of Supervisors, he said, I sponsored several resolutions dealing with immigration issues in the separation of families. Those resolutions made it very clear that Yolo County stood in favor of immigrants.

District 2 Candidates

Will Arnold said he has been working on issues of diversity and inclusion for a long time. As an activist he said that he had run several campaigns for women and people of color, trying to make sure that everyone has representation locally.

As a member of the Davis City Council, Im incredibly proud of our record of inclusivity and police reform in terms of ensuring that all voices are heard and that we have seats at the table for folks who had previously been left on the sidelines, he said.

Dillan Horton said this has been a lifetime and long time work for him also, going back to high school. Back in high school his adviser had him serve on a committee to address disparities in education outcomes in high school between students of color and whites.

He worked in college on accessibility issues and barriers to students getting into college and being successful in college.

He said as a member of the community and Davis he worked on campaigns for people seeking to bring access to people of color, such as Dean Johansson who was running for district attorney in the last election cycle.

I have had the opportunity to be on the police accountability commission for the last two years, really working to not just drive the commission but our whole city government in examining how we can improve our systems to make sure that everyone has a degree of safety and security in the community, he said.

Colin Walsh said he lived in New York in 2001 and was there on 9/11 and explained that a circle of white men had gathered around an Egyptian-Americans desk. They were making comments like the Middle East should be turned to glass and they were using racial slurs. He spoke out and filed a complaint, he said. He believes that led to his being terminated. I would do this today because I believe you have to be an upstander, he said.

He explained that today he flies a rainbow flag on his porch because he feels like its a good example for his kids as well as the community.

My kids have a wide range of friends that view gender in a lot of different ways, and I want them all to know that my place is a safe place for them and that Im an ally for them, he added.

District 3 Candidates

Lucas Frerichs noted that this is a very expensive community to live in. One big issue for him prior to being on the council was the creation of affordable housing. He was a board member of Yolo Mutual Housing and helped lead that organization.

During that time I worked on the creation of hundreds of units of permanent affordable housing in Davis, he said.

He also mentioned working on Dean Johanssons DA race on the issue of criminal justice reform.

Some additional work weve done on the city council has been on police reform in the creation of the Police Accountability Commission, he said.

Larry Guenther said that while he was working on the Davis Downtown Plan, many of the members noted that various races were not well represented in the discussion, and so he reached out to people of color and the underrepresented to try to get their views and make sure they were included in the discussion.

He has also tried to be really involved in city issues like trying to reimagine public safety. He said he has personally tried to call out racism in the workplace and in the community.

Trying explain to people why its racist, he said. People dont really get it. He explained that people really dont understand where white privilege is coming from.

District 5 Candidates

Josh Chapman said the most important thing that he has done and will continue to do is to acknowledge his privilege as a straight white male. He said he will work hard to be the best ally that I can be.

My privilege was never more apparent to me than when I graduated college and I moved into Southeast Washington, DC, to join AmeriCorps and work in the public school system there, he said.

He explained that he had grown up in rural Maine, one of the whitest areas of the country, and ended up in a public school system that was almost completely black.

It was at that point that I realized that my experiences were not the same as their experiences were, he said. That experience led me to pursue a degree in equity and social justice.

Kelsey Fortune said the first step when talking about diversity, race and equity is to acknowledge that theres a need for initiatives, committees and education.

The next step is to educate yourself and create spaces for diverse voices, she said. Im hopeful that we can see increased diversity in our representative bodies so that we can create these types of spaces.

She said for her personally this has really come in the form of gender, not race.

I am finishing my degree in economics, probably the least diverse field that exists, she explained. Pretty much white men. So I have to speak up every single day to make sure that we are heard.

Connor Gorman explained that he has worked with a lot of different organizers in our community to promote diversity and inclusion and anti-oppressive initiatives. He worked for justice for the Picnic Day 5.

Coming out of that process he worked with a number of different organizations to bring a police accountability commission to Davis. I also helped pressure the Davis City Council when working with the indigenous community to move their banking resources away from Wells Fargo in solidarity with the opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, he said.

In addition, Connor said that he is working with campus organizations to promote these sorts of equity issues as wellstudents and campus workers are also a part of our community.

Rochelle Swanson said that she has worked with groups that focus on treating cervical cancer for women of color throughout the world to make sure they have equal access to health care. They have focused on East Africa, Nicaragua, Cambodia and India, as well as Thailand.

Professionally, she said, she works on the digital dividethat impacts, unfortunately, disproportionately children of color, she said.

She also mentioned during her time on the council she supported the Police Accountability Commissions formation.

In part two we will have the next two questions that were addressed to portions of the panel.

David M. Greenwald reporting

Follow Yolo Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Elections (YCDIE) on Facebook to learn more about their future programs. To watch the full live forums school board and council. YCDIE has also prepared a candidate guide that can be accessed here. Finally, ycdie is appealing to the public for donations to continue their work of ensuring diverse bodies in our local leadership as well as training the next generation into those positions of leadership in the future. To donate via paypal or credit card: To donate using a check, kindly contact ycdiedavis@gmail.com.

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Council and Supervisor Candidates Take on Race and Social Justice Issues - Part One - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

Bill author Scott Wiener, Senator from San Francisco

By Linh Nguyen

SACRAMENTO Despite public opposition and misinformation, Governor Newsom has signed into law Senate Bill 145incorrectly confused with legalizing pedophilia by QAnon and otherswhich amends a sex crimes law that discriminates against young LGBTQ people on Californias sex offender registry.

Under longstanding California law (since 1944), if an adult has voluntary penile-vaginal intercourse with a minor aged 14 through 17 and is up to 10 years older than the minor, the offense is not automatically registerable. A judge would have discretion of whether to place the defendant on the sex offender registry depending on the facts of the case.

However, if the act is oral sex, anal sex or sexual penetration, the court must place the defendant on the sex offender registry regardless of the facts of the crime and even in cases where neither the prosecutor nor the judge want to place the defendant on the registry.

This distinction of the law is discriminatory toward LGBTQ young people as, for example, it would place a 19-year-old on the sex offender registry for having voluntary, non-vaginal sex with a 17-year-old.

The age of consent in California is 18. Therefore, having sexual relations with a minor is considered statutory rape and may be considered a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the case details and ages of the defendant and alleged victim.

SB 145 would end California discriminatory treatment of LGBTQ young people for specific sex acts regarding sex offender registry law by placing those sex acts under the same category as penile-vaginal sex.

I am so grateful that Governor Newsomone of the LGBTQ communitys strongest allies everonce again has shown that hes willing to support our community even when its hard, said Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), author of SB 145, in a statement.

He added, And make no mistake: the politics here are hard, with the massive Trump, QAnon, and MAGA misinformation campaign against the legislation. The facts are clear: SB 145 simply ends anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Today, California took yet another step toward an equitable society.

The signing of SB 145 was met with widespread opposition by some in the public and prominent politicians.

Posts spreading on social media when the bill was being discussed in the state legislature falsely interpreted the bill as legalizing pedophilia. These posts echoed posts shared by conspiracy theory and QAnon social media accounts earlier in the summer.

QAnon is a right-wing, pro-Trump conspiracy theory group centered on beliefs of a deep state plot against the president involving satanism and child sex trafficking.

In early August, Sen. Wiener received threatening messages using anti-gay slurs and calling him a pedophile for sponsoring SB 145.

Despite massive, disgusting misinformation from the QAnon cultincluding extreme death threats against mewe were able to pass SB 145 because its the right thing to do, Wiener said in a statement.

One Facebook post read, PEDOPHILIA is now LEGAL in CALIFORNIA. Now a 21 year old can have sex with an 11 year old, and not be listed on the sex registry as a sex offender. This is unbelievable California.

The bill would not apply when the minor is under the age of 14, when the age gap is larger than 10 years or when either party says the sex was not consensual.

Another Twitter post strikes at Democratic Party Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris for being a supporter of Wiener, the outspoken supporter of the bill.

According to the bills authors and outside experts, these posts fundamentally misrepresent SB 145.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who drafted the bill, said in a statement: This bill allows judges and prosecutors to evaluate cases involving consensual sex acts between young people, regardless of their sexual orientation, on an individual basis.

Signing SB 145 was the right thing to do, said Rick Chavez Zbur, Executive Director of Equality California, which co-sponsored the bill with the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office.

It was the right thing to do for LGBTQ+ young people, it was the right thing to do to keep our communities safe and it was the right thing to do for California. If we want a California for all, then we need a justice system that treats all Californians fairly and equally regardless of who they are, what they look like or whom they love. That goal is at the core of SB 145, said Zbur.

SB 145 is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office and Equality California, and is supported by both law enforcement (California District Attorneys Association and California Police Chiefs Association), as well as civil rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the California Public Defenders Association, Children Now, the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), Lambda Legal, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

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CA Governor Signs Bill Ending Discrimination against Young LGBTQ on Sex Offender Registry - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Synopsys, Inc.(Nasdaq:SNPS) today publishedBSIMM11,the latest version of the Building Security In Maturity Model (BSIMM), created to help organizations plan, execute, measure, and improve their software security initiatives (SSIs). BSIMM11 reflects the software security practices observed across 130 firms from multiple industry verticals including financial services, FinTech, independent software vendors, cloud, healthcare, Internet of Things, insurance, and retail. BSIMM11 describes the work of 8,457 software security professionals who guide the efforts of over 490,000 developers.

BSIMM is used by organizations as a measuring stick to compare and contrast their own initiatives with the data from the broader BSIMM community. BSIMM11 shows that many organizations are adapting their software security efforts to support digital transformation and modern software development paradigms like DevOps.

Read the BSIMM11 Digest or download the full BSIMM11 study.

"The BSIMM is an excellent resource for security leaders interested in learning from the collective experiences of their peers, particularly to solve new or emerging challenges," said Mike Newborn, CISO of Navy Federal Credit Union, a member organization of the BSIMM community. "Today, most organizations face the challenge of securing a growing portfolio of applications against the backdrop of rapidly evolving and accelerating software development practices. BSIMM11 reflects how many of these organizations are adapting their software security strategies to protect themselves and their customers without stifling innovation or impeding the speed of development."

Emerging trends in BSIMM11

"The way modern software is built and deployed has transformed dramatically over the past few years, so naturally the efforts required to secure that software are changing as well," said Michael Ware, BSIMM co-author and senior director of technology at Synopsys. "Businesses are critically dependent on software, and modern methodologies have accelerated the speed of development. As a result, there is more software everywhere, and we still need to worry about all the pre-existing software. As a model that constantly evolves to represent the actual practices in use by hundreds of software security groups around the worldincluding some of the most advanced teams in the worldthe BSIMM provides a near-real-time view into how these changes are being implemented to protect the growing software portfolios."

New activities in the BSIMM represent a shift toward DevSecOps

The three activities added to BSIMM10 saw exceptional growth within the past year (SM3.4 Integrate software-defined lifecycle governance, AM3.3 Monitor automated asset creation, CMVM3.5 Automate verification of operational infrastructure security). This reflects how some organizations are actively working to accelerate software security efforts to match the pace of software delivery. Furthermore, the two activities added in BSIMM11 represent a continuation of that trend (ST3.6 Implementing event-driven security testing, CMVM3.6 Publishing risk data for deployable artifacts).

BSIMM across industries

BSIMM provides unique, data-driven insight to understanding and comparing the relative strengths and weaknesses of software security initiatives across a variety of industries. Cloud, Internet of Things, and high technology firms are three of the most mature verticals in the BSIMM11 data pool. BSIMM11 also highlights differences between three highly regulated industries: financial services, healthcare, and insurance. The financial services industry, which had software security groups in place earlier than other industries, was seen to have more mature practices compared to their counterparts in healthcare and insurance. For the first time, the BSIMM presents data on the FinTech vertical, and found that it tracks fairly closely to financial services, with the primary deltas (in favor of FinTech) occurring in the training, security testing, and code review practices.

Read the BSIMM11 Digest or download the full BSIMM11 study.

For an interactive discussion of the key findings in BSIMM11, register for our October 15 webinar.

Acknowledgments

Sammy Migues, principal scientist at Synopsys, Michael Ware, senior director of technology at Synopsys, and John Steven, founding principal at Aedify Security, authored BSIMM11 after analyzing data collected over nearly 12 years of software security research. Some of the companies participating in the BSIMM study include: Adobe, Aetna, Alibaba, Ally Bank, Autodesk, Axway, Bank of America, Bell, BMO Financial Group, Black Knight Financial Services, Box, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, City National Bank, Cisco, Citigroup, Dahua, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, Eli Lilly, Equifax, Experian, F-Secure, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, General Electric, Genetec, Global Payments, HCA Healthcare, Highmark Health Solutions, Honeywell, Horizon Healthcare Services, HSBC, iPipeline, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lenovo, MassMutual, McKesson, Medtronic, Morningstar, Navient, Navy Federal Credit Union, NCR, NEC Platforms, NetApp, NewsCorp, NVIDIA, PayPal, Pegasystems, Principal Financial Group, Royal Bank of Canada, SambaSafety, ServiceNow, Synopsys, TD Ameritrade, The Home Depot, The Vanguard Group, Trainline, Trane, U.S. Bank, Veritas, Verizon, Verizon Media, Wells Fargo, and Zendesk.

About the BSIMM

Started in 2008, the Building Security In Maturity Model (BSIMM) is a tool for creating, measuring, and evaluating software security initiatives. A data-driven model and measurement tool developed through the careful study and analysis of over 200 software security initiatives, BSIMM11 includes current, real-world data from 130 organizations. The BSIMM is an open standard that includes a framework based on software security practices, which an organization can use to assess and mature its own efforts in software security. For more information, visit http://www.bsimm.com.

About the Synopsys Software Integrity Group

Synopsys Software Integrity Group helps development teams build secure, high-quality software, minimizing risks while maximizing speed and productivity. Synopsys, a recognized leader in application security, provides static analysis, software composition analysis, and dynamic analysis solutions that enable teams to quickly find and fix vulnerabilities and defects in proprietary code, open source components, and application behavior. With a combination of industry-leading tools, services, and expertise, only Synopsys helps organizations optimize security and quality in DevSecOps and throughout the software development life cycle. Learn more atwww.synopsys.com/software.

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) is the Silicon to Softwarepartner for innovative companies developing the electronic products and software applications we rely on every day. As the world's 15thlargest software company, Synopsys has a long history of being a global leader in electronic design automation (EDA) and semiconductor IP and is also growing its leadership in software security and quality solutions. Whether you're a system-on-chip (SoC) designer creating advanced semiconductors, or a software developer writing applications that require the highest security and quality, Synopsys has the solutions needed to deliver innovative, high-quality, secure products. Learn more atwww.synopsys.com.

Editorial Contact:Mark Van ElderenSynopsys, Inc.650-793-7450[emailprotected]

SOURCE Synopsys, Inc.

http://www.synopsys.com

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Synopsys Publishes BSIMM11 Study Highlighting Fundamental Shifts in Software Security Initiatives in Response to DevOps and Digital Transformation -...

Artificial intelligence will under deliver to begin with but blow our minds in the future, the chief executive of Babylon Health has said.

Speaking during a London Tech Week panel discussion on AI, Ali Parsa said the NHS is doing fantastic work in the field but added we must not be afraid to participant in new technologies.

AI, like any other technology, is going to under deliver to start with but blow our mind away in the long term and we need to get used to it, he said

On one hand we need to stop hyping what it can do today and we need to almost overhype what it can achieve in the future.

He also added that getting the policy on AI right is critical.

You want the policy to make sure we dont have snake oil today deployed and hurting people, and on the other hand it doesnt suffocate what could come tomorrow, he said.

Thats incredibly hard work to do.

Also speaking was Dominic King, UK lead and medical director at Google Health, said turning research into production is immensely complex adding that the NHS is a vanguard on how AI can be deployed globally.

We know that artificial intelligence and digital technologies are going to transform healthcare, it may not be in two years but 10 years, he said.

Is it transformative now? Not really because most hasnt been implemented at scale, but we are putting the foundations so when its ready many of the mistakes and issues that weve seen with dissemination of technology in the past weve learnt our lessons.

Thats why I think the NHS acts as this exemplar or vanguard for how this technology can be thoughtfully deployed on a global scale.

But he warned there are risks with technologies like AI that need to be managed.

Theres also real risks of this technology and its critical that were very deliberate, we dont want to extend the current inequalities and biases we see, he said.

Particularly whats evident over the last nine months of Covid, and that we end up negatively disrupting how care is delivered in the future.

The government has recently boosted its stake in artificial intelligence, announcing a total of 100m for AI projects.

In late August the Department of Health and Social Care pledged 50m of further investment to improve diagnostics across the NHS, through delivering digital upgrades to pathology and imaging services across the country.

A second wave of 50m was announced on 8 September for a range of AI tools to be tested and scaled under the National AI Lab, launched in 2019.

It includes tools that can accurately analyse breast cancer screening scans and assess emergency stroke patients.

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AI will 'under deliver' at first but 'blow our minds' in the future - Digital Health

Low income housing estate in Abuja.By Gabriel Ewepu Abuja

As Nigerians continue to grapple with the challenge to own decent houses of their dream, the Affordable Housing Cooperative Society, Tuesday, stepped in to assist Federal Government to bridge the existing over 20 million housing deficit with the launch of two products, Easy Mortgage and Collateral Direct.

The launch of the products was done via webinar by the President, Affordable Homes Cooperative Society Town Planner Komolafe Lukman, along with other board members.

Lukman explained that the government alone cannot provide houses for the over 200 million Nigerians and those yet to be born, hence cooperative societies such as the Affordable Homes Cooperative Society, to jump in to rescue the situation with innovative strategies to ensure Nigerians own decent homes of their dream.

He said: Today is an important day for us at Affordable Homes Cooperative Society, which was established over 10 years, and it was formed to fill the gap, which is housing need, which is also a basic necessity of life including clothing and food.

We have a serious deficit in Nigeria as far as housing is concerned. The sole aim of forming this cooperative in 2011 is to solve part of the deficit of housing in Nigeria.

In making that effort we acknowledge the fact that there are challenges, but we at Affordable Homes Cooperative we are taking advantage of the opportunities by making sure we meet the housing needs of Nigerians and also bridge the gap.

However, we have identified problems facing the housing sector in Nigeria which include land, mortgage, which an average Nigerian cannot afford a mortgage because of the income of Nigerians.

Considering these challenges we have come up with two basic solutions to address these challenges, which we call Easy Mortgage; this is to assist Nigerians access mortgage easily, and the other is what we call Collateral Direct; this is to tackle the challenge of an average Nigerian who is into the business when it comes to moving their business forward in terms of accessing loans from Microfinance banks, while some are stuck and cannot move forward because they cannot access loan because they lack collateral.

The good thing is that we as a cooperative is out to fill that gap either by purchasing land through our partners by making sure we solve the problem of collateral.

According to him, Our target of launching these two products is to ensure that Nigerians benefit from them, which on the long run we are going to fix the problem of housing which we are optimistic that if we fix this problem of housing deficit in Nigeria we will solve a lot of problem in Nigeria.

We also know that housing could be used as a panacea to the countrys economic problems because it could be used as a conveyor-belt because if a site begins work it will lead to the multiplier effect of job creation, the supply of building material, food selling and other, he stated.

Meanwhile, in a goodwill message, the Executive Secretary, National Co-operative Cooperative Financing Agency of Nigeria, CFAN, Emmanuel Atama, commended the initiative of the Affordable Homes Cooperative Society and pledged support for success with the new products launched.

As we make giant strides in all sectors of the economy and housing is inclusive. The National Cooperative Society of Nigeria has been working with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria together with other cooperatives making sure that housing is affordable for Nigerians.

The FMBN has provided a window called the Cooperative Housing Window the intent and purpose and the FMBN and the National Cooperative Financing of Nigeria have been interfacing on behalf of cooperatives in Nigeria to ensure we create a window that promotes inclusiveness.

Unlike before that access to mortgaging is for those in the formal sector. Working with the FMBN today, the window has been provided for those even in the informal sector

We all know that when cooperatives intervene in any sector of the economy it makes things ordinarily not affordable to be affordable, and that is why we are very happy with the Affordable Homes Cooperative Society with respect to the intervention they have provided for access to housing in Nigeria. We are proud of them, wish them well, and will provide them the necessary facilitation to make sure they succeed.

Also speaking was the Executive Secretary, Affordable Homes Cooperative Society, Mike Dibie, who explained that the cooperative is legally registered with Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, and CFAN, and added that members are projected as a priority to ensure their narrative change in positive based on the formidable team of management.

He said: Affordable Homes Cooperative Society is legally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, also with Cooperative Financing Agency of Nigeria.

Primarily the cooperative gives optimal support to members to own their own houses and also to live a fruitful and happy life, and members have fulfilled lives because they have access to personal and business loans and to own houses including buying goods at discounted rates on developing a property. To register is N5000, while you own a share by buying 10 units at N10, 000 with a fee of N2000 as monthly contribution as a member. The portal is there and soon our app will be out. Our headquarters is in Abuja. We can be reached at http://www.affordablehome.com.ng or 0817388222.

Today we are launching two products that would further deepen the impact of Affordable Cooperative Society which are Easy Mortgaging and Collateral Direct to have loans that make their business prosper.

Vanguard

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Cooperative steps in to assist FG bridge over 20m housing deficit - Vanguard