Why stakeholders drum support for FG’s new housing plan

 

Housing is one of the basic human needs, but the situation in Nigeria presently is that many people do not have shelter over their heads; hence the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN deserves to be commended for recently committing N200 billion to the Federal Government’s 300, 000 social housing scheme.

The project, which is under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), is established to help bridge the housing gap in the country.

Abinitio, the project comprises one, two and three bedroom units to cut across the six geo-political zones of the country.

One bedroom unit supposedly costs between N1.8 million and N2 million, while the government said there would be financial assistance for Nigerians to pay the mortgage.

About 20 states are said to have keyed into the ESP aimed at providing affordable housing for low income earners.

By an d large, the housing issue keeps growing exponentially with Nigeria’s population  estimated to be 206 million, while Nigeria’s housing deficit is put at over 17 million and home ownership is put as low as 25 per cent. There are still Lagosians living under flyover bridges and using it as their homes. In the North East region, there are some, like the Internally Displaced Persons,(IDPs) who are homeless on account of communal conflicts as well as Boko Haram.

It has been projected that by 2050, Nigeria’s population will hit 411 million, thereby making Nigeria to be the third most populous country in the world.

Pundits are of the belief that this situation will worsen the housing deficit because the Federal government policy and the private public partnership may not be able to accommodate the new population.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said last year that the Federal Government was constructing affordable homes in 34 states of the federation as part of the fulfilment of the model National Housing Programme.

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) which was established in 1956 to bridge this gap, CBN, developers and others have been working  hard in turning around the sector, yet most Nigerians have continued to rely on their long-term savings to buy houses with full cash payments due to the high interest rate from banks.

Much as the government tries to address some of these deficits, the challenges that still abound in the built industry include lack of land titles, the cost of building materials and labour, high survey fees, land settlement costs, high cost of Certificate of Occupancy, among others.

The housing deficit has serious implications, as some people are still under the mercy of such sicknesses as malaria, typhoid and many others, while women among them risk being kidnapped, raped and subjected to other brutal and degrading inhuman treatments.

The CBN’s N200 billion support is said to be a great relief to help create about 1.8 million jobs, with multiplier effect on the economy as well as local production of building materials.

The Federal Government said they will need about 1.5 million doors; 1.8 million windows and 7.8 million hinges, cement, paint and some other building materials.

There will be the employment of the services of established developers and young small-medium scale professionals as well as artisans for the project.

Stakeholders in the built environment have charged the government to encourage mortgage institutions to support individuals to build their own houses through collaboration between the CBN and the Federal Mortgage Bank.

They called for more mortgage facilities spanning up to 25 years tenure at six per cent interest rate per annum, so that more Nigerians will be able to have access to decent housing.

Consequently, experts have posited that Nigeria needs to build about 700,000 new houses annually to bridge the housing deficit, but less than 100,000 houses are currently been constructed in the country yearly.

The experts also tasked the current government that their efforts must be fully implemented in continuity of any change regime not end up like some elephant projects that were abandoned.

The Housing Development advocacy network- the leading Non Governmental Organsation in the sector should not be a lone ranger but bring in Real estate developers Association of Nigeria, Cooperative associations among others to join the new bandwagon of delivering social housing for Nigerians through the instrumentality of the CBN and other loans.