Dr Victor Onukwugha, President/Chairman of Council of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria (AHCN) has identified the usurpation of the statutory responsibilities state housing agencies by the state ministries as one the clog in the wheel of provision of affordable houses for Nigerians
He stated this in his opening speech at the two day national workshop with the theme ‘Attracting Sustainable Housing Finance for Effective Housing Delivery’ which took place simultaneously with the 47th AGM/107th Council meeting of AHCN at Abuja November 30 and December 1 2021.
According to him, ‘this usurpation of the statutory responsibilities of these state housing agencies by the state ministries is purely an unnecessary duplication of duty which will in the long run cause distraction, needless rivalry, unfair competition and sheer wastages and repetition of efforts and resources’
It is also a major factor responsible for the ‘incessant building collapse, improper planning of our cities, charlatanism, usage of fake building materials among others are some of the consequences of distraction arising from this usurpation and participation of ministry in direct construction’
Dr Victor said the housing ministry should therefore strictly reduce its activities to policy formulation and monitor her statutory parastatals to ensure policy compliance and accomplishment while the Ministry of Housing both at the federal and state levels should concentrate on providing an enabling environment and supervision for the housing agency to fulfill its statutory mandates rather than engaging in direct Federal Housing Authority and FHA should be empowered to reproduce mass housing of old like that of FESTAC in Lagos across the country with support from the ministry.
The AHCN President said in the past, state housing corporations were the bedrock of housing development in Nigeria. But that has suddenly changed and everything turned the other way as most of these corporations just exist without notable activities and this has resulted to some rhetorical questions being asked by everyone; how did the situation degenerate to where we are today? How and where did we get it wrong? What happened to our housing policies and programmes? Why is it that our state housing corporations that were set up to execute public housing programmes for each state of the federation were unable to perform as expected? Where is the place of social housing amidst growing housing deficit?
While positing that the housing needs of the people are enormous and opportunities abound in the construction and housing sector, he also asked ‘what are we doing with these opportunities amidst high demand without corresponding supply? As these are the diverse questions begging for answers in the housing sector while not neglecting key ones ranging from inadequate housing finance to service both the demand and supply end of the market, the controversial figure of housing deficit, crawling mortgage market, affordability question, land administration quagmire and incessant building collapse among others to instability of housing policy implementation.
He acknowledged the fact that there was a global eruption of novel corona virus otherwise known as Covid-19 pandemic which paralyzed and displaced all business and policy strategies and further compounded housing problems coupled with the rising inflation and unemployment rates arising from global economic crisis emanating from post covid-19 which are tightening the nose of attracting sustainable funding for social and affordable housing which the workshop is designed to address and reassess the housing market with a view to unlocking and harnessing inherent opportunities in attracting sustainable housing finance for social and affordable housing thereby utilizing housing as agent of economic recovery.
