By CALEB AYANSINA

A HUMAN settlement expert, Mr Steve Ike has called on the Federal Government to address the land acquisition problems in the country with a view to making housing provision more affordable.

Ike who is the chief executive officer, CEO of  Campaign Hype Ltd, opined that efforts to make housing affordable in Nigeria, would continue to be a mirage until the pro-masses land policy is developed and genuinely implemented.

Ike who made the call at the 2014 Nigerian Urban Development Awards, in Abuja, noted that housing the over 17 million homeless Nigerians should not be treated with levity.

“The best approach in solving the problem of housing deficit in Nigeria is through the public-private partnership approach and one of the steps to be taken in that regard is making land accessible and cheap so that developers can build and reduce the cost of housing for ordinary Nigerians,” he said.

He noted that although the government has promised to make land available, he regretted that  it (land) is still very expensive. “If you purchase land at a very high cost and manage to build on it, definitely you will want to sell or rent it out at higher price. What we are saying is that the government should make available land at affordable rate so that the prospective builder or developers can actually build houses at a cheaper cost, for them to sell at lower prices.

“While we commend the efforts of the government in this regard, we enjoin them  to do much more for the average Nigerian to be provided with shelter,” he said.
Speaking on the award, he said “it is to encourage the key players in the sector including those who are in leadership positions to do better.”

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, who was one of the awardees said the FCT administration will support  stakeholders “to accomplish various policy initiatives such as the land swap model, under which we  provide land as equity in public-private partnership project designed to fast-track the provision of infrastructure.” Represented by the Director of Urban and Regional Planning, Alhaji Ishola Salami, the Minister maintained that “the FCT administration is committed to building the territory in tandem with the Abuja master plan.