The Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) has tasked the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing on the need to be transparent in the allocation of houses under the National Housing Programme (NHP).
The call, the group said, has become imperative, noting that lack of transparency was one of the reasons for the failure of most of the government’s housing projects in the country.
It recalls that the government promised to construct 300,000 houses across the country, while the ministry had also announced the completion of 5,000 houses.
Driving home the point, HDAN’s Director, Research and Development, Gbenga Adeoye, observed that most of the housing projects executed for the masses by the government were sited in remote areas, “at least about 50percent of them.”
Decrying the practice, Adeoye explained that people wanted houses that they could move into right away.
Suggesting the way forward in the country’s quest to bridge the housing deficit, the HDAN spokesperson enjoined the government to implement the rent to own policy, pointing out that the current policy of building and selling houses to citizens has not helped.
Instead of direct involvement in construction of houses, Adeoye urged the government to focus on policy formulation and creation of an enabling environment for practitioners in the sector.
“The challenge we are having is that many of those houses are not located in areas where they could be purchased and people would move into immediately. Some are located outside the city.
“We even got reports that some of the buildings have been vandalized, especially in the Northern part of the country, because the developers have abandoned the projects after collecting money.”
In terms of increasing the housing stock, he stated that the number of houses delivered, no doubt, have led to creation of some jobs. However, he said there was a problem of affordability which could make the houses go eventually into the wrong hands.
“Don’t forget this is a pre-election year where some of the houses will be used for settlement,” he said.
He decried the high cost of the houses, saying it has brought about more crisis rather than resolving the housing crisis.
“When you are selling a one-bedroom flat in Ekiti and Ondo states for N7.2 million, who can afford it in Ekiti or Ondo states? So that alone is the crisis in the project.
“On that note, we are saying in 2022, Federal Works and Housing should not have anything to do with direct construction of houses. The ministry should be creating an enabling environment, formulating policies and more Public, Private Partnership (PPP) to increase the housing stock in the country.” Adeoye said.
He also called on the ministry to focus on collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other stakeholders to provide data in 2022, pointing out that it will be difficult to formulate policies on housing without verifiable data.
He advised that government that those who have the expertise of data collection should be engaged internationally and locally.
The spokesperson of HDAN also tasked the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to dispose the 5000 housing units delivered under the NHP on the basis of rent to own so that they don’t end up in the hands of wrong people.
“They should begin to dispose those houses on the basis of rent to own, where people pay rent initially and later begins to pay the remaining balance of the value of the house on the basis of rent to own.
“So we cannot afford a situation where the government is building houses and the people do not have the affordability to own those houses, and once those houses are left unoccupied, they would be vandalised. ”
He also urged the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to do more in the area of research and development, adding that it should also do more to attract people in the informal sector.
Besides the group charged the Family Home Fund to do more in building low cost houses, with its mandate on social housing, suggesting that it should test run the use of local building materials in the country.
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