Govt should look into rising cost of building materials —Oni

Mr Samuel Babajide Oni is the Manading Director, Convvy Estates Limited. In this interview with DAYO AYEYEMI, the estate developer wants government to intervene in the rising cost of building materials in order to provide affordable housing for Nigerians.

Considering the economic realities – inflation, forex exchange and high cost of building materials, how can you make housing more affordable to the people?

As a company, what we have implemented in our services and products is mass production of buildings. When you are talking of mass construction, it takes out the risk of effects of inflation. We have also been able to implement certain strategies in terms of being pre- affordable by providing installment payment plans, which are more convenient. We do have a plan of rolling out another payment plan from N250,000 on monthly basis in order to be a home holder. Literarily, we are not a company whereby we hold onto a client, that unless payment is completed you cannot move in, or you can’t move to site. We have always being a pace setter in terms of instant allocation to allow and enable our clients carry out development. To make them owner of a property being landed or building, we have the flexible payment plan.

As a company and with regards to the government, when it comes to reducing inflation, we are acquiring things in mass purchase. This enables us to extend discounts and pass it on to our clients. We strive in various means to elevate the issue of creating affordable buildings.

What is the solution?

We implore the government to implement some terms and conditions that we actually help the industry when it comes to building materials. A lot of materials, when they come like steel and the rest, are still currently being imported. When we talk about woods, you will be surprised that finished woods are being imported into the country, which is something that government should intervene and put a stop to this or create facilities to assist manufacturers. This will lower the cost of materials, which in turn will lower the cost of building and, make houses affordable to the end users. You will also recall that when we started our development, a bag of cement was at N2,300, but as at today, you get a bag of cement at N4,300, which is not in the control of the developers. We do implore the government to look into this and devise means of regulating something like that.

What kind of houses are you building because affordability is relative? Are you bungalows and duplexes?

We as a company have identified the needs for housing and proper development. We are providing houses for the middle-class people. As I always say, proper housing development should not be considered luxurious. In most of our current housing development, we have eradicated bungalows. We have fully identified the needs on the ground – the population and all of that. We need to maximize the use of space, hence the development of apartments, duplexes and terraces. These we have identified, and the use of bungalow is being put away. We tried to be prudent by actually putting in place buildings or developments that are not just beneficial in serving the purpose of housing issues, but cost and efficiency.

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