Housing show: African architecture solution to deficit — Adebayo

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of African International Housing Show (AIHS), Barr. Festus Adebayo, in this interview, said the annual event held 24th-25th July will host a session on African architecture as part of solutions to housing deficit in Nigeria. He said it will also provide a platform to developers for accessing green building funding from international partners. Excerpts:

For this year’s edition of the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS) what difference are you bringing on board?

The focus of the AIHS 2023 will be on ‘Beyond Rhetoric: Making Housing Happen’. We are bringing in creativity, we are bringing in innovation and we are bringing onboard practicality and saying no to rhetoric without manifestation, without result. So, 2023 AIHS is a year of making housing happen. And luckily for us, we are having it at a time Nigeria has a new government that has brought new agenda for making housing happen.

We are in the world of climate change and the whole world is looking for solutions to climate change. At our level too, we will be looking at how climate change affects affordable housing. We will be talking about green housing and will partner International Finance Corporation (IFC) to make this happen. What are the innovations the world has embraced in the housing sector? So AIHS 2023 will partner with IFC to implement green building in Nigeria.

Another partner to this innovative discussion and practical ways we can make a change in the sector is Reall UK. It is an international organisation that is responsible for financing green affordable housing. Reall and IFC are partnering to make AIHS 2023 a practical endeavour.

Also, the Edge Building, a department of the IFC will be giving certification to organisations which have gone through their processes.

Shelter Afrique has also raised bond in Nigeria and the AIHS 2023 will provide developers the avenue to access this funding. Nigeria is the second largest shareholder in Shelter Afrique and therefore, Nigerian citizens have been clamouring for more benefits and the new management of the organisation is saying we are ready to collaborate with Nigerians in ensuring the dream of ensuring affordable housing is realized.

“We are expecting no less than 26 countries, including United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom’s Department of Trade and Investment, China and others. In fact, China will be participating for the first time in the AIHS since the COVID-19 pandemic and they will be coming with innovative products in building technology and housing, alternative energy sources, interior designs and others.

Also, one of the salient themes of the AIHS 2023 is to share and showcase success stories in various countries. We are going to showcase success stories of countries like Morocco, Egypt, Kenya and others, who have within a year delivered over 100, 000 houses.

We are also going to deliver our own estate developers who have within one year delivered nothing less than 5000 houses. They will also share with us some of our limitations and we will use the opportunity to seek for solutions and palliatives.

What are your achievements in the 16 years you have been doing this show?

AIHS has been bringing together credible developers and that has succeeded in assisting 22, 000 Nigerians own homes. Besides, AIHS annually features over 7,000 participants who network conveniently and in the course of doing this benefitted over 22,000 Nigerians own homes. We have not for once lost our sponsors, from Dangote to AFP furniture, Lafarge, NMRC, FMBN and CDK, mention them. We have not lost any of them, instead, they are increasing.

Annually, we record between N200-N250bn transactions on the platform of the AIHS and this shows that if the sponsors where not benefitting, they would have stopped coming. AIHS has now become a must-attend event.

Also, through our partnership with the Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria, Housing Development Advocacy of Nigeria, we have made it possible for Nigerians to use their Retired Savings Accounts (RSAs) to get mortgage for housing. So, at the AIHS 2023, we will fine tune the processes and the conditions for that model of funding.

Initially, Nigerians had barrier accessing Shelter Afrique funding but it was at the AIHS platform that real estate developers, Nigerian stakeholders and Shelter Afrique signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that because of the fluctuations in the exchange rate of the naira, it was not encouraging for developers to take dollar loan, which can put them into trouble. So they requested that the dollars be changed in naira. So Shelter Afrique went to Nigeria Stock Exchange and raised a bond so that the money can be in naira for estate developers to have access.

Finally, one of the critical issues we will look at this year is that of real estate data. A former minister of housing said it at various times that there is no accurate data on the housing deficit in Nigeria. AIHS 2023 will give priority to that in corroboration with the Nigerian Population Commission (NPC), Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

How soon can Nigerians get the official data?

What we are going to do at the show is to set up a committee that will work with the NPC. We will raise a committee of experts that will support NPC to get the accurate data. We are also getting the support of the African Union in terms of funding so hopefully, the teams working together can come up with data in that sector.

There can’t be success stories without challenges, so what has been your biggest challenge organizing this show and what are the lessons you have learned?

Despite our efforts, we are still facing the challenges of land grabbing, corruption, lack of political will on the part of the government to reform the mortgage system. But we are not giving up; we have set up advocacy platforms to advance policy ideas. We have made our position known on the merger of some agencies in the housing sector and what we want in the area of mortgage. Housing must be given the desired attention.

As of today, the contribution of housing to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about 5.3 per cent and it is the fifth contributor to the GDP. All over the world, the position of housing is very key in creating jobs.

Some stakeholders in the real state sector say the idea of affordable housing is not realistic; especially in Nigeria where inflationary trends and importation of building materials make housing expensive?

Affordability is relative. What is affordable to one person will not be affordable to another. So affordable housing is not the same as social housing. We have developers saying they are building affordable housing but when you ask the price, they say N54 or 59 million. Government must have a way to intervene so that citizens can have social housing and what you call affordable housing. Government can intervene through infrastructure.

Beyond that, government can create a land bank, where it can do site and services.

In the area of building materials, at various times I have called on the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI). They have professors and other top-notch professionals but where are the results of their research?

So because of this high cost and importation of building materials, we are going to have a session on African architecture at AIHS. We must change our thinking; our orientation must change to overcome these challenges and provide affordable housing.

So government must show the political will to drive the Nigerian housing sector. Between January and now, the Egyptian Government has delivered 15, 000 houses. I was at the World Bank for a meeting on affordable housing and I was angry at the venue because we are coming up with beautiful ideas but who will implement it.

Finally, I am saying that professionals in the housing sector should have interest in politics. We cannot make the changes we are clamouring for if we are outside the government.