Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola has again advocated a housing economy as a viable means of rebuilding Nigeria’s economy.
According to the Monster, the first time he canvassed this was at the 2017 conference when he also disagreed with the estimated size of Nigeria’s housing deficit because it lacked any empirical basis.
He reiterated his position while delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the ongoing 15th Abuja International Housing Show on Monday.
He said, “This is because the housing economy delivers continuously at every spectrum of the value chain, with impact mostly on the lives of artisans, labourers, masons, suppliers among others at the construction sites.”
Fashola who was represented by the Minister of State for Works and Housing, Engr Abubakar Aliyu, maintained that those beneficiaries of buildings are the most vulnerable members of the society, perhaps, as they do not have a sustainable source of income but live by daily earnings.
The Minister also told the large audience comprising top dignitaries from Nigeria and across the world that even between that time and this year’s show that the country and the rest of the world have continued to battle with COVID-19, progress has been made through the effort of the built industry operatives, professionals and other stakeholders, which had contributed to increasing the stock of affordable and accessible home ownership a pre- and post-COVID-19 era.
He maintained that with the National Housing Programme (NHP) inaugurated by the Buhari administration which commenced in 2016, and the local content promotion campaign backed by Executive Orders 3 and 5 issued by the government at some point, “the overall economic value chain arising from the housing construction activities is mostly beneficial to the Nigerian youths who are directly involved in the physical production of the houses”.
Suffice it to say that the 2021 AIHS will address the Minister’s worry over the housing deficit figure that is not based on empirical data; the convener of AIHS and President of the Housing Development and Advocacy Network (HDAN), Barr. Festus Adebayo, while delivering his welcome address earlier, disclosed that a partnership between AIHS and the National Bureau of Statics (NBS), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), among other critical stakeholders was underway towards addressing the issue of inadequate data which, according to him, is the main reason why it is difficult to appreciate the huge and ever-widening housing gap in the country.
Nigeria’s housing deficit has been put at over 17 million.
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