By  YINKA KOLAWOLE,

President Goodluck Jonathan has stressed the need for the development of a comprehensive framework to effectively address factors militating against the development of the housing and urban development sector, with a view to bridging the housing gap in the country.

Jonathan Goodluck

Jonathan who stated this at the 4th Building and Construction Roundtable, organised by the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (QSRBN) in Abuja, said the country would not be able to bridge the housing deficit gap without addressing the underlying factors militating against the sector over the years.

The president who was represented by Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Akon Eyakenyi, said the federal government has articulated enabling policies, plans, and strategies to re-invigorate the housing sector. He said government had identified four priority areas to work on in its drive to remove all impediments to housing and urban development.

“We shall continue to focus on four areas of priority concern to ensure sustained transformation of the housing and urban development sector. As agreed at an enlarged forum of key stakeholders during the presidential retreat on housing and urban development, which I convened in November 2012, the four priority areas are: Improved land administration and management (especially land titling); affordable mass housing; housing finance and; urban and regional development.

The aim is to significantly reduce the national housing deficit and ensure the transformation of our town and cities into liveable, productive, inclusive, and environment-friendly human settlements, as well as drivers of socio-economic growth and sustainable national development,” he stated.

In a related development, the federal government has expressed readiness to collaborate with the government of Iran on production of mass housing in a bid to reduce the nation’s housing deficit estimated at about 17 million units.

Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi, said this when Iranian Minister of Industry and Mines, Mr. Mohammad Nemetzadah, led a delegation to the ministry to seek partnership in the delivery of affordable and qualitative mass housing in Nigeria.

She said the partnership is expected to result in the construction of about 10,000 housing units across the country before the end of this year.

According to a statement, Eyakenyi stressed the importance of adopting new technologies in the construction of houses in bringing down housing costs, noting that it would also create employment opportunities for the teeming Nigerian populace. “The partnership targets new construction technologies with the aim of making houses affordable to both the low and middle income earners,” she said.

The minister said government is ready to partner with any willing investor by offering free and unencumbered land for the provision of mass housing. She however added that such land would be retrieved from any investor who is found unwilling or incapable of utilising it within the stipulated period. “The ministry will also ensure that there are up-takers to purchase the houses through the revitalisation of the mortgage system,” she added.

In his remark, Nematzadah said the delegation he led was in the country to, among other things, seek areas of possible partnership with the Federal Government in providing affordable and qualitative housing in the country.