Welcome Remarks By the Director (Planning, Research & Statistics), Dr. Famous S. Eseduwo at the Technical Session of the 8th Meeting of the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development
PROTOCOLS
On behalf of the Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, Honourable Minister of State, Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu, FNSE, the Permanent Secretary, Mohammed Bukar and the Management of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, I warmly welcome you to the Technical Session (Meeting of Officials) at the Eight (8th) Meeting of the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development.
2. The theme of this year’s Council Meeting, “Housing Development and Consumer Credit as Strategies for National Prosperity” was carefully chosen in recognition of government’s new initiative to generate more jobs and create wealth for Nigerians through the mass construction of affordable housing units.
3. As we all are aware, housing is one of the fundamental human needs and a veritable indicator of standard of living in every society. However, housing deficits exist in almost all the countries of the world, either in the form of shortages in supply or affordability gaps.
Housing is of supreme importance to man and one of the best indicators of a person’s standard of living and his place in society. However, at no point has it been adequately supplied either quantitatively or qualitatively.
4. Permit me to highlight that various factors are responsible for preventing effective housing development, some of which include lack of secure access to land, high cost of construction, limited access to finance, bureaucratic procedures, high cost of land registration and titling, uncoordinated policies and implementation at both Federal and State levels, ownership rights under the Land Use Act, lack of critical infrastructure, affordability gap, and inefficient development control, etc.
5. In order to comprehensively address the challenges of housing development for sustainable economic growth, there is the need to develop a holistic strategy that will involve all tiers of government and the private sector. Considering the fact that the private sector has displayed flexibility and potentials in housing development as it is prevalent, internationally. I want to assure you that the federal government would continually work towards fine-tuning its policies and programmes towards creating an enabling environment for greater participation of subnational governments and the private sector in housing development.
6. It is worth noting that, the present Administration is mindful of the challenges of ‘access to credit’ encountered by the Low- and Medium-Income segments of our society in the pursuit of home ownership. Government is also aware that land acquisition poses a major hindrance to effective housing delivery. Thus, all processes that would ensure proper harmonization of the various procedures and instruments of land acquisition/transfer across the country are currently being addressed.
7. The Ministry through its agencies is working tirelessly in collaboration with the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Cooperative Societies as well as the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) towards the development and delivery of affordable housing to the low-income workers in the formal sector. Furthermore, our Agencies are also developing initiatives to incorporate micro-enterprises, such as agro-allied ventures into the housing scheme with a view to generating more employment opportunities thereby creating wealth for beneficiaries to repay their loans at ease
8. It is interesting to note, that the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria’s single digit interest rate of 6% on mortgage and home renovation loans is the lowest, compared to what is obtainable in the open market. The Bank has concluded various initiatives to make shelter more accessible and affordable by the reduction of equity contribution for National Housing Fund mortgage loans to 0% for loans of N5 million and below, while loans of N5 - N15 million attract only 10% down payments.
9. In addition, the ‘Rent-to-Own’ initiative eliminates equity contribution and payment of mortgage perfection fees, which accounts for up to 20% of mortgage transaction costs. Under a simple rental arrangement, an individual gains immediate access to a housing property while the monthly rent is accrued to serve as equity build-up towards ownership of the property.
10. As you are also aware, the ongoing National Housing Programme across the federation is an initiative specially designed to encourage local manufacturers, professionals, artisans and craftsmen towards enhancing employment and wealth creation. The Housing Programme only allows the use of home-grown building materials and components in the construction of the houses except where it is established that the component cannot be produced locally or production capacity is inadequate.
11. Ladies and Gentlemen, in recognition of the widening income gap in our society, the present administration has provided an array of safety-nets through the National Social Investment Programme (SIP), targeted at providing support to over 12 million needy Nigerians by giving relief and assistance to children, unemployed youths, the weak and vulnerable as well as small/medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) to mitigate the adverse effect of poverty. Let us also use this platform of the National Council to harvest ideas and develop some stringent strategies for employment generation and wealth creation through the built industry.
12. I, therefore, urge all stakeholders, here present, to make meaningful contributions on the memoranda submitted to enable the federal government formulate and strengthen policies that would facilitate more home ownership amongst Nigerians, especially the low- and -medium income earners.
Thank You.
