BY CHRIS OCHAYI

Worried by the acute shortage of housing accommodation being experienced in the country, the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria, QSRBN, on Thursday, asked the Federal Government to develop a new national housing policy framework that would address the issues of housing deficits, especially as it affects the low income earners.

President of QSRBN, Mallam Hussaini Adamu Dikko, who made the call in Abuja while briefing newsmen on the activities of the board, regretted that the current measures put in place by the government through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN)’s National Housing Fund (NHF) have not made impressive impact towards solving the housing crisis in Nigeria.

Dikko who was assisted at the briefing by the Registrar of QSRBN, Mr. Godson Moneke wants the government to urgently formulate a comprehensive and all encompassing new housing policy which will guaranteed that Nigerians, from all strata of lives, both in formal and informal sectors of the economy will own a house of their own.

“The housing problem that we have seen over the years is that, up till now the government has literally failed to get a policy framed work right because of the changes that keep on coming.

They are not organised and streamlined in such a way that you address the need of the generality of the public almost intending to have their own houses. Most of the policy that were done where generally targeted at the higher_middle class and higher class income of housing,” he said.

Canvassing a true mortgage system that will cater for the lower income strata, Mallam Dikko explained that previous efforts to provide mass housing have not yielded positive results.”A true mortgage facility will need to be set up to address the needs of the lower income cadre of the population. We heard about the National Housing Policy, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN, but up till this moment, these have not filtered into a way that it will make a real difference in housing provision. What we are advocating is far beyond the government to directly provide that level of housing.

They’ve attempted it before with the Federal Housing Authority.

So what is required is the frame work that will make it possible for investors that can provide the number that can take care of the deficit and at the same time hope those that will occupy those houses should pay for them on a long term basis as it happens in most other parts of the world,” he said.

He lauded the sale of government property (houses) to the civil servants occupying them during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo “That singular act is what helped even bring Federal Mortgage Bank back to life because of the mortgage transactions that were done for public servants.

It brought thousands of houses into the market and made a lot of difference. One of the side effects is that in Abuja today, there are hundreds of private estates that are all coming up as a result of this. But the problem still remain that of affordability,” he said