By Jude Njoku

Another offshore round of training for Nigerian real estate developers, government institutions and consultancy firms has been packaged by a Lagos-based public relations outfit -Messrs Niche PR. The week- long programme will hold between June 27 -July 1 at the headquarters of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in Washington DC in the United States of America.

The training programme according Niche PR’s Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Marcella Iyitor has been designed to accommodate the varied needs of the built environment sector stakeholders.

Mrs Iyitor explained that the agenda for the programme would include how America builds- an overview of the American housing industry and its processes, products, and procedures, land development planning and site development, business management for building professionals, green building programme, and building system council. Participants, according to the PR outfit are drawn from government institutions, the private sector and relevant professional associations.

They include Federal Ministry of Housing, Lands and Urban Development, Federal Roads Safety Corps, Ogun State Bureau for Lands, Kano State Ministry for Local Governments, Akwa Ibom State Housing Corporation, Niger State Housing Corporation, Jigawa State Housing Authority, Afribank Estate Limited, Dinat Ventures Ltd., Jubilee-Life Savings & Loans Limited, Sleek Architects & Associates, El- Salem Nigeria Limited, Century Trade Ltd., AYU & Company Ltd., Portal Realties, HOB Nigeria Ltd., HomePlus, and Righteous Construction Company.

Mrs Iyitor said the organisers of the programme (NAHB) have secured a session with the World Bank/IFC (Financial & Private Sector Development ) Principal Financial Specialist, Douglas Grayson and Programme Coordinator, Olivier Hassler for discussions on housing finance, mortgages, housing, slum upgrading, secondary mortgage markets and Private Public Partnership subsidies. In addition participants will visit NAHB Research Center at Upper Marlboro, Maryland established in 1964. The Center has been providing third party evaluation and testing of products and materials used by builders.