By Chris Ochayi

Real estate developer and Chairman of the Novone Enterprise Estates Initiative Nya-Etok Ezekiel, an architect, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to probe all land allocations made in respect of mass housing in Federal Capital Territory, FCT, by the past administrations in the last ten years.

Ezekiel who made the call while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, regretted that most of the lands allocated to estate developers for the purpose of constructing mass housing units for lower income earners have been diverted to different use.

Ezekiel who is also the Chairman, Sub-Committee on Low Income Housing, alleged that estate developers who are beneficiaries of such hectares of land either balkanised them into plots and sold to the rich people at very exorbitant rates or have been developed into edifices that are out of reach of the common people.

Describing the ugly trend as a crime against a section of the citizenry, Ezekiel said it is imperative for the present administration to set up a panel of investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the diversion of hectares of land allocated for mass housing in FCT.

The businessman, while lamenting the current housing deficit confronting the country, however, called on the president to use his good offices to avail his group access to the Central Bank of Nigeria, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, and other sources, as well as leverage cooperation of MDAs, State and Local Governments in order to address the issue of housing deficit in the country.

According to him, “Consequent upon the above, I implore the Federal Government to give direct guarantees to investors that are willing to undertake mass housing delivery in Nigeria, which in this case could be pegged at estates that have not less than 1000 – 10,000 housing units.

“Any company that is willing and able to raise funds to invest in that number of units to get his money back on meeting the set standards for such estates cannot be a briefcase contractor or land speculator. Also, with the scale of the projects, such developers will find the need to set up their factories in the country knowing that there will be enough construction to justify their investment”, he said.

He noted that “A building that costs N10,000,000 with a mortgage facility for 20 years has a face value of N500,000 per annum. This cost is far less than the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment in any of the major cities in Nigeria. In the heart of the city of Abuja, Lagos, or Port

Harcourt, that is about the cost of a Boy’s Quarters with the toilet outside and no kitchen.

“There are thousands of people in the outskirts like Gwagwalada, Nyanya, Ojodu, Ogba, Itam, etc. who pay more than N500,000 annually as rent for a two bedroom apartment.

If these people were to pay that same amount to own a two bedroom apartment in a well built estate, they will be more than grateful to pay that amount even as rent.

“For that same N10,000,000, it is possible to build a 3-bedroom apartment if the number of homes is in thousands because of the economies of scale. The import of the above is that you can safely guarantee a minimum of 5000 persons from any of the above outer towns and settlements who will be too glad if they could be given a three bedroom apartment to rent for N500,000 per annum. In a Rent-To-Own scheme, they will feel eternally grateful to any government that can guarantee the above.

“Safely put, such a scheme in any state capital will easily have a minimum of 5,000 to 10,000 people as being eligible to own the houses with a 10 to 15 year mortgage facility,” Ezekiel noted.