*‘Omoniles are enemies of housing development’ …
Mr. Toyin Ayinde, a Town Planner, is the Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning & Urban Development. In this interview, he discloses what the state is doing to ensure the availability of housing. He also speaks on the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme- HOMS and the redevelopment of Makoko, a sprawling slum in Lagos.

RESIDENTS of Lagos State have expressed apprehension over the readiness of the state government to combat the challenge of heavy rainfall with attendant severe flooding this year following 2013 prediction by Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET .

The Lagos State Government last week, gave reasons for the delay in the take-off of its home ownership mortgage scheme, HOMS. The Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje explained that the government wants to build enough houses for the people before flagging off the full implementation of the scheme.

First City Monument Bank FCMB Plc, in collaboration with the Isolo Local Council Development Area, has inaugurated a special Climate Change Unit and Green Brigade in the area.

The Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria, QSRBN, weekend, blamed the current high cost of construction projects on the exclusion of quantity surveyors from performing their cost functions. The construction cost experts claimed that such projects have become instruments for money laundering and corruption.

The nation’s housing deficit currently put at between 16 – 17 million units, can only be reduced through a collaboration between the public and private sectors of the economy. To this end, the Federal Government is lobbying the private sector to support its efforts to provide affordable housing for millions of homeless Nigerians.

…Residents appeal to Lagos Govt
RESIDENTS of Unilag Estate Magodo, Isheri in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State, have called on the Lagos State Government to help alleviate their sufferings.

•Complex should have complementary uses like hotels
•Master plan should be reviewed to determine its relevance …
Why did the Federal Government wait for about 40 years of the existence of the National Arts Theatre before deciding to commence the full implementation of the original master plan of the complex? Is the master-plan upon which the Government is now hinging its decision to build a five-star hotel and shopping mall at the complex still relevant in present day Nigeria?

•Victims blame govt, land-grabbers for their woes
•Churches, mosques, estates, schools, markets, others demolished …
AFter several warnings to owners of structures along pipeline and powerline areas to vacate such settlements, agents of the Federal Government, last week, moved in with bulldozers, cranes and other equipment to pull down the marked structures.

Umike is village in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State. The community is at the brink of becoming extinct, no thanks to the gully erosion that is ravaging the area. Several houses in the area have been swallowed by the erosion and the fear of the people is that if nothing is urgently done, the entire community might soon be washed away.

…As Lagos Fair to focuses on climate change, housing delivery
Apparently worried by the effect of climate change on housing development, this year’s edition of Lagos Housing Fair slated for April 29 to May 4 will “direct the nation’s attention to the debilitating effects that climate change could have on all aspects of housing delivery”.

ABUJA – The Federal Government has blamed the regulatory agencies in the construction sector for failing to apply professionalism and commitment to the achievement of the highest professional standards in the building industry.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola will today, commission the Ikeja Millemium Housing Estate. The commissioning is pursuant to the avowed commitment of the state government to provide decent accommodation for Lagos residents in line with the policy direction in which the state identified housing as one of its four cardinal points.

THE rate of poverty in Nigeria is unarguably very high. In fact, the Bureau of Statistics in its latest report, estimates that a whopping 102 million Nigerians fall within the poverty bracket. The question is, how many of these less privileged Nigerians can borrow money from the bank at a 20 percent interest rate to either buy or build their own houses?

No fewer than 334 million people representing 39 percent of the population of sub-Sahara Africa lack access to clean drinking water. Similarly, about 600 million people which is approximately 70 percent region’s population, lack access to sanitation.