N60tn needed to bridge mass housing gap, says FDC
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The Director of the Federal Department of Cooperatives, Idris Ali Sani, has stated that Nigeria would require N60tn to build mass housing and address the country’s housing deficit.
Sani stated this during a summit in Abuja, explaining that there was a need for developers, the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and others to deploy local raw materials for the construction of homes for the people.
According to him, for stakeholders to meet the demand and supply of houses, they must invest heavily in the development of local materials, saying this is the answer to the challenge of accommodation in many cities of the world, including Abuja, Lagos and others in Nigeria.
“If the federal and state governments want to build affordable houses, they should forget the importation of building materials from China and concentrate on local content. When it’s done, no country can compete with Nigeria in terms of constructing mass bungalows,” he said.
He stated that Nigeria’s housing deficit cannot be tackled with the current delivery rate of just 10,000 units per year by stakeholders and governments. He described this pace as grossly inadequate, stressing that much more needs to be done to close the housing gap.
The convener of the summit, Dr Saheed Adelakun, emphasised that although government agencies and others are at the forefront of delivering affordable houses for the people, their drive should be to cut costs and build the types that are in demand in the country.
“We are ready to bring critical stakeholders together to brainstorm and offer them opportunities to operate to reduce the cost of houses by 50 per cent. We need a savings system to provide the commodity to the citizens,” he noted.
