The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said his ministry was working with the ministries of finance, budget and national planning to reduce interest rates and lending rates in order to reduce the deficit of housing in the country.
Fashola made this claim during the third edition of Lafarge Africa Plc’s quarterly webinar – Concrete Ideas.
It is a platform for deliberation on the issues, policies and developments that are shaping the construction, infrastructure and housing sectors in Nigeria.
The theme of the webinar was: “New Solutions for Nigerian Urban Housing. “
The minister, who spoke as the special guest of honor, said the government will provide long-term funding to reduce the housing deficit in the country.
He said housing is a commodity that the private sector can harness to increase their entrepreneurial skills.
“I am happy to observe that over the past four years at least, the private sector’s footprint in real estate is growing.
“What the government can do to strengthen this space is to use its fiscal and monetary policy muscles to make it even more prolific to play by lowering rates – interest rates and lending rates.
“The government should provide long-term funding and these are conversations I have with my colleagues, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning,” he said.
Fashola added that state assembly chambers and attorneys general must stand up and intervene on behalf of their residents through rent controls.
He noted that housing needs to be discussed in terms of ownership and rental.
“Where you have people asking citizens to pay three years’ rent in advance for monthly wages earned in arrears, there is a lag there; housing will never be affordable and most of the property does not belong to the government but to private citizens, ”said Fashola.
He urged attorneys general to be creative in passing legislation to address the problem.
According to him, Nigeria must rethink its construction method so that those with the economic power to demand and consume.
The minister refuted claims that Nigeria had a housing deficit of between 17 and 22 million, saying the claim was unrealistic as there were empty houses in all major urban centers.
He said the federal government is perfecting plans to ensure the next census includes homeownership to determine the nation’s housing deficit figure.
He noted that the housing deficit was an urban problem and land was a very important part of solving housing problems in the country, but he said the federal government did not control the land but the states.
Also speaking, Lafarge Africa Managing Director Mr. Khaled El Dokani said the Concrete Ideals platform is for strategic discussions on critical and tropical issues in construction and other sections of its value chain.
Dokani said the commitment of the federal government and its agencies to encourage private sector participation in critical policy making cannot be overstated.
“Today’s event signals a call for all key stakeholders in the sector to work together and find lasting solutions to the urban housing problems in Nigeria,” he said.
He said the company will remain committed to providing construction solutions through innovative products for economic growth and development.
Miss Amaka Nwaokolo, founder of Blue Tower House, said access to finance was vital to solving the housing problem.
Nwaokolo urged the government to provide affordable financing to real estate players to address housing issues in the country to ease the burden that would be passed on to end users. (NAN)
