The Senate President of the 10th National Assembly, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has urged stakeholders at the ongoing Africa International Housing Show 2023 to proffer solutions to the housing problem in Nigeria.
Akpabio, who declared the event open at the International Conference Centre, Abuja yesterday, assured of the support of the 10th Assembly to ensure affordable housing for all.
The Senate President, who was represented by Senator Asuquo Ekpeyong, said the provision of decent shelter for all was not negotiable.
He, therefore, charged the gathering which comprised of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of leading real estate and construction companies, heads of housing and mortgage agencies and parastatals and exhibitors of building and construction materials, to come up with proposals on the various challenges constraining housing development for legislation.
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The chairman of the occasion, Surveyor Suleiman Hassan Zarma, said challenges of housing in Africa have defied solutions.
He lamented that the cost of housing has continued to get out of reach of an average Nigerian thus widening the housing deficit.
The former Minister of Environment, while reiterating that housing continues to be a basic need for millions of Nigerians, decried that the potentials in the Nigerian housing sector were yet to be tapped.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Mr Olusade Adesola, has warned stakeholders in the real estate sector against violation of the Abuja master plan while enjoining them to always get approval before embarking on land development.
Adesola, who assured stakeholders in the built industry of partnership towards housing provision, cautioned that traditional rulers in the FCT have no constitutional powers to allocate land hence, any land acquired through them is not valid.
He said the FCTA was ever ready for long-time investment partnership for housing development, adding that the demand for housing in Abuja was constantly growing.
The permanent secretary said, “Abuja was conceived to be developed as a well-planned city. It was conceived as an affordable and well-planned city and going forward, we remain dedicated to executing the master plan meticulously for a balanced and equitable settlement.
“Therefore, we take serious exception to violation of the master plan.”
He further said, “On the acquisition of land, do not buy lands from chiefs, they do not have lands. When you want to buy land, search with FCTA, if the land is available we’ll show you and if it is not please don’t buy it because sooner or later it will become subject of litigation.”
In a goodwill message, the Chairman, Urban Shelter, Malam Ibrahim Aliyu, said Nigeria’s housing sector demands rapid attention to develop it.
Represented by Musa Aliyu, he called on stakeholders to set agenda for housing sector development.
He advised the FCTA that resettlement of communities for projects should be undertaken with fairness.
Aliyu, while calling for digitisation of the housing processes, also advocated for the adoption of mortgage system to bridge housing deficits.
He lamented that the current ratio of outstanding mortgage to gross domestic product (GDP) was an inhibiting factor to housing development.
The President Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), Surv. Dr Matthew Olomolatan Ibitoye, on his part, said owning a decent house is still an unattainable goal for many African households due to many factors which include, amongst others, lack of affordable housing finance, high costs of urban land, weak tenure security, rising construction costs, and the prevalence of slums.
Ibitoye who was represented by Surv. Yusuf Aro-Lambo, said building collapse was one of the recent challenges facing the construction industry, adding that Nigeria had got negative statistics of its occurrence in the past few years.
He said, “Beyond the provision of legal documents that depict the size and shape of parcels where housing will be provided, the ubiquity of surveying makes us partners at every stage of management of such facilities, providing evidence-based decision-making geospatial data.”
He called on stakeholders to consider the menace of flooding leading to loss of lives and properties when siting locations of properties and housing estates. “Members of our institution are ready to provide floodplain maps which depict where not to site construction for mass housing to avert losses that occur every rainy season,” he stated.
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