IN order to facilitate housing delivery, especially for the low and medium income groups, the President Association of Housing Corporation of Nigeria (AHCN), Dr Victor Onukwugha, has canvassed the creation of a new ‘Housing Development Fund’ to grant social loans to housing corporations to engage in property development that will be allocated to National Housing Fund (NHF)’s contributors.
As part of the suggested recommendations he made recently during the two-day National Workshop on Facilitating Affordable Housing for Medium and Low Income Earners in Abuja, Onukwugha said there was an urgent need to sanitise the primary mortgage market with enabling laws.
He blamed inadequate financial support in terms of seed funding and high cost of funds for challenges confronting the nation’s housing corporations.
Besides, Onukwugha called for the provision of government’s guarantee with credit insurance for lenders to mitigate and share risk.
Apart from this, he suggested that there should be provision of credible national credit database to assist financial institutions in information sharing, assessment and rating in property financing and mortgage origination.
He also appealed to government via the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to regulating interest rate to a single-digit for housing financing; while making a case for the provision of quick resolution of foreclosures parameters to attract investors to the sector.
To facilitate low and medium income housing, the AHCN boss said the controlling body of cooperative societies in each of the state should work in partnership with the state housing corporations to develop affordable dwelling units for viable societies in all states of the federation.
“The state controlling body of cooperative should serve as the guarantor for the housing corporation to get an exit point. Provide tax incentive/rebate for manufacturers of local building materials to encourage adequate production of such materials at affordable prices to flood the market,” Onukwugha said.
He called for the commitment of government to provision of infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity as subsidy package to reduce cost of housing unit.
He also urged the government to inject at least N500billion intervention fund at single digit interest into the housing sector
The AHCN boss called for digitalisation of land registries and reduction of cost of registering property
He is on the opinion that there should be provision for the diversion of certain percentage of excess funds in the coffers of Pension fund and insurance companies into housing provision, saying there should be activation of vibrant secondary market and alternative funding sources.
On what is required for the transformation for effective housing delivery, Onukwugha stated that usurpation of the statutory responsibilities of state housing agencies by the state ministries should not be allowed “as it will create room for politicking with projects.”
He urged that Ministry of Housing to strictly reduce its activities to policy formulation and monitor her statutory parastatals to ensure policy compliance and accomplishment
“There is no doubt that provision of low and medium income housing has suffered great neglect in recent time which was further compounded by the effect of COVID-19 that paralysed global economy, it is however pertinent to recognise that housing sector still possesses the most viable platform to rescue the nation from economic woes and recession if approached pragmatically.
“The involvement of state housing corporations is definitely inevitable if we hope to facilitate low and medium income housing for Nigerians through social housing platform as enumerated in the National Housing Policy.”
“Moreover, if the Economic Sustainable Plan hopes to achieve its lofty objectives of creating jobs for the people and contribute to GDP and economic development, Housing Corporation remained the key to unlock this potential of economic recovery through ESP,” he said.
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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”
He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.
“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.
According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”
“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.
The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”
“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.
“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.
“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.
Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.
“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.
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