Stories by Tope Sunday
Abuja
The federal government has set up a Task Force to facilitate the implementation and delivery of 100 housing units in the Family Homes Housing Project across the nation.
The task force is saddled with the responsibility of proffering a lasting solution to the huge national housing deficit in the country.
The Minister of State II for Power, Works and Housing, Surveyor Sulaiman Hassan, who spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Land, Infrastructure and Offtake Sub-Committees for the project in Abuja recently, said the project was a new window intended to deliver more affordable houses to Nigerians.
The minister, who is also the Chairman of the project, noted that its essence was to consistently deliver about 100 housing units annually and create more jobs for unemployed Nigerians.
He explained that the Land and Infrastructure sub-committee is to engage with relevant state governments and stakeholders on prime locations of land in the various states of the Federation.
According to him, the Offtake Sub – Committee is to determine a model for the participation of staff housing cooperatives, adding that this will take care of retired civil servants, officers and personnel of the security forces.
Mr. Hassan enjoined members of the sub-committees to bring their experience to bear in order to actualize the laudable initiative of the federal government geared towards the delivery of affordable mass housing.
In her address, the representative of the Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, stated that affordable and quality houses is a key issue that the federal government was pursuing.
Walson-Jack, who is also Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare Office in office of the Head of Service of the Federation, assured that members of the Offtake sub-committee will do the needful in meeting up with the task ahead.
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu ,noted that one of the aims of the Family Home Project is to identify the financing requirements.
According to him, it was also targeted at drawing up a sustainable financing of the models, structure of financing and buy-in of relevant Agencies including the Nigerian Mortgage Re-Financing Corporation for the continuity of the programme.
Expert advocates subsidy for housing sector
The former Managing Director of Abuja Property Development Company (APDC), Architect Bashir Haiba, has called on the federal government to subsidize the Real Estate sub sector.
Haiba, who spoke in an interview in Abuja recently, said the subsidy can be taken for the uptaker.
He said government can make a huge difference if banks across Nigeria are used as outlet to give loans for housing at low interest rate.
Haiba, who is an Abuja-based Architect, also urged the government to implement right policies in the housing sector that will target the low income earners and bring the stakeholders together.
He identified removal of encumbrances to land acquisition, good planning and engagement of necessary technology as ways of fulfilling government’s promise.
Haiba urged Nigerians to key into rent-to-own scheme, and advised couples to embrace the scheme in order to become ‘Landlords’ with ease.
He, however, said that the provision of low cost housing in Nigeria is nearly impossible because appropriate policies and measures are not implemented.
According to Haiba, Nigeria’s minimum wage of N18,000 ($51) per month is a clear indication that house ownership to average Nigerians is a mere dream.
Haiba said low cost housing is unattractive to developers because “developers don’t like unsold stock. Government is the biggest actor. If government floats bonds to build roads, why not do same to build houses?”
MBAN to partner MAN on affordable housing
The Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria (MBAN) has expressed its readiness to partner with the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) to provide affordable housing in the country.
The partnership, the association said, would be through building and raw material components in order to deliver houses to majority of Nigerians at affordable cost.
The association also expressed its desire in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Sukuk model to help its members access finance at non interest mortgages for rapid growth of the sector
The President of MBAN, Mr. Adeniyi Akinlusi, who spoke at the association’s retreat recently in Abuja, also sought for sustainable and verifiable source of funding for the sector.
He sought to wrap up the association’s uniform mortgage underwriting standards for non interest mortgage for all its stakeholders across the sector.
The association also agreed to uniformly unbundle its mortgage guarantee and insurance as well as collaborate with other stakeholders in order to use the sector as stimuli for quick recovery following the lull in the economy in 2017.
The president of the association also noted that infrastructure gap constitutes is a substantial part of building and called for the involvement of the three tiers of government in the provision of facilities to assist the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) and other developers in housing delivery.
