Mass housing: National Council adopts 7 delivery models

By Yinka Kolawole

National Council of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has adopted  seven housing delivery models for mass housing development in the country. These are New Towns Development, Cooperative housing, Public-Public Partnership, Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Regeneration (including completion of abandoned houses), Rental Housing and Sites and Services Scheme.

The council comprises of the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Amal Pepple, State Commissioners responsible for lands, housing and urban development matters, and senior officials of related Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The decision was taken at the second meeting of the Council held recently in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, convened to draw up strategies and deliberate on how issues affecting housing delivery and urban development could be assuaged.

In a communiqué released at the end of the meeting, they also supported full commercialisation of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and urged the Housing Ministry to facilitate the process without delay to enhance its operational efficiency and effectiveness in housing delivery.

The Council noted the importance of housing as fundamental human rights and supported that more attention as well as resources be devoted to the provision of social housing and cooperative housing as veritable strategies for the reduction of housing deficit and to address the social consequences of homelessness.

It backed the setting up of a Mortgage Refinancing Company (MRC) to significantly scale up access to mortgages in the country, but also emphasised the need for government to recapitalise the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) to make it a more effective and efficient financial institution as obtains in other parts of the world.

The attendees also urged state governments to support and contribute to the National Housing Fund (NHF) in accordance with the provisions of the Act, to facilitate home ownership for citizens.

They also approved the establishment of a geographic Information System (GIS) technology in land administration and approved the establishment and development of a framework for a ‘one-stop-shop’ on land titling and registration system.

The Council also recognized the existence of huge capacity gap of artisans and craftsmen in the building industry and approved the upgrading and conversion of the existing building training centres at Lagos and Ikeduru, Imo State to skills acquisition centres.