On his part, Mr. Gideon Luka, Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, said that the House would ensure that the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), a key player in the housing sector is given all the needed support.
“The challenges of housing are enormous, but there is a lot we can do
in order to remain focused in addressing housing deficit in the
country.
“All the professionals must work together to address the challenges of housing in the country,’’ he said.
Mr. Yemi Adelakun, Managing Director, Nigeria Integrated Social Housing
(NISH) Affordable Housing Ltd called for a robust savings scheme to ensure inclusive growth and development.
Adelakun stressed the need to encourage cooperative housing scheme, address building materials, and financing challenges, among others.
Mr. Ahmed Dangiwa, the Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of
Nigeria (FMBN), said addressing the housing deficit must go hand-in-hand with the promotion of the use of local building materials and technology.
Dangiwa said that ArchiBuilt has made a lot of impact in this direction.
ArchiBuilt is an annual exhibition organized to continually bring to the fore, trends, technologies, systems, and policy issues that impact on the building industry’s intervention and responses to
everyday living.
“ArchiBuilt had made lots of impacts on
government policies on the building and construction sector.
“The promotion of local content in building materials and construction
technology cannot be overemphasized,” he said.
He said that the forum should be sustained as it provides a platform for the government at all levels, policymakers, professionals and sector players to interact.
Mr. Festus Adebayo, the Chief Executive Officer of Fesadeb Communications Ltd. called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the housing sector.
Adebayo, the convener of the just-concluded 13th Abuja International
Housing Show said that the population of the country is growing at a
geometric rate, while housing is growing at arithmetic progression.
He said the Federal Government’s efforts in the provision of houses could not match the country’s population growth rate.
“The 17 million deficit cannot be static, every day we are
increasing in number without increasing in ideas, policies and political will,’’
Adebayo said that the government should not be involved in building houses; rather it should come up with policies that would encourage people to invest in the sector.
He advised relevant authorities to focus more on what is called the “Rental Housing Scheme,’’ which he defined as “own and pay accordingly.”
Adebayo also called on the government to ban the importation of building
materials in order to promote local content in the building sector.
He also identified a high mortgage interest rate as a major challenge facing the housing sector.
Adebayo said that the situation made it difficult for citizens to access loans from mortgage banks.
“An ordinary citizen of Nigeria cannot walk into a mortgage bank and
process a loan because the interest is still at double digits.
“A civil servant who worked for 35 years cannot afford to buy a two-bedroom apartment in a good location in Abuja or Lagos,” he said
Mrs. Mounia Tagma, Manager of the Middle East and Africa Projects, at the
Affordable Housing Institute (AHI), called on the government to
fashion out intervention in order to reduce the cost of land and
construction.
She advised that the country should carry out research that would
inspire actions and bring results.
Prof. Charles Inyangete, Chairman, Innovative Risk and Investment
The solution said the challenge of affordable housing should be
addressed via a comprehensive urban plan that would sustain new
communities.
He said that statistics released in October 2015 by the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa, indicated that Nigeria needed about 363 billion dollars to meet its current housing needs.
Inyangete, a former Managing Director, Nigeria Mortgage
Refinance Company (NMRC), said that the country would only succeed in
building homes by building sustainable communities.
According to him, statistics by McKinsey Firm also revealed that
Nigeria currently has about 96 million urban households that are
financially overstretched, while many people live in
substandard housing.
Mckinsey also said that by 2025, 106 million additional low income
households would face the challenge of affordable housing, especially in urban areas.
With contributions from experts on the way forward, the government should identify the best option to tackle the country’s housing deficit. The “Rental Housing Scheme,’’ may be a credible and workable option.
Source: Independent.ng
