BY YINKA KOLAWOLE

Members of the Senate have tasked the Committee on Housing and Urban Development of the upper legislative chamber to re-work the Social Housing Bill in a bid to make it implementable after passage into law.

The senators gave the charge during the presentation of the Committee’s report recently on the floor of the Senate.

They stepped down the bill citing faulty procedures and legal technicalities capable of hampering its implementation if eventually passed into law, while giving members of the Committee more time to do a thorough job.

The Social Housing Bill is meant to facilitate the development of mass housing for the poor and low income earners.
In his presentation, Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing and Urban Development, Sen. Bukar Ibrahim, emphasized the importance of passing the bill, noting that it would afford low-income earners in the country the opportunity of owning their houses without too much difficulty. He said the Committee identified various sources of funding from the private sector to ensure smooth take off and sustenance of the scheme, such as unclaimed dividends, deposits of deceased people without next of kin, dormant account balance in banks, five percent of Ecological Fund and two percent of oil and gas proceeds.

Housing Estate in Lagos

Members of the Senate acknowledged that the concept of the bill is good but questioned the legality of its implementation if passed as presented. They noted that its passage in its current form is likely to create legal and procedural problems that could affect its implementation.

In her contribution, Sen. Nkechi Nwaogu, noted for instance that some of the recommendations on sources of funds contained in the report may be unconstitutional. According to her, it would be difficult recovering people’s personal money either in form of dividends or from dormant bank accounts to fund the housing scheme because there is no law that forecloses access to personal funds in banks after a period of time.

Others advised the Committee to go back to the drawing board and liaise with the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and other relevant agencies on how best to implement the scheme. The Committee was also counseled examine practices in other countries with similar socio-economic environment to that of Nigeria with a view to adopting their social housing scheme.

Senate President David Mark, on his part, called for the creation of a special fund for the development of the scheme in Nigeria. He urged the senators to make every effort to save the bill in a way to ensure sustainable social housing in the country. He challenged the Committee members to come up with guidelines to save the important bill, urging them to identify where the funds would be warehoused, the sources of funds, legal issues that could arise over unclaimed dividends and see how to “marry the bill with the Federal Housing Authority Act.”