Housing Did Fairly Well in 2022, But More Work Needs to be Done-NITP President

The impact recorded in the housing sector in 2022, especially with regard to provision of infrastructure, has been highlighted.

In an exclusive interview with our correspondent, the National President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, NITP, Nathaniel Atebije, stated that the sector had ensured increased access to housing in 2022, adding that provision of infrastructure was an integral aspect of that feat. He said that failure to provide infrastructure, however, only amounts to proliferation of slums.

In his words, “The housing sector has fared well; quite a lot of people had access to houses. In quite a lot of places infrastructure was provided, which makes meaning to any housing environment. We have enough evidences to say quite a lot of houses were started and quite a lot of houses were completed.”

He, however, said in spite of the remarkable achievement recorded in the sector last year, part of the challenges is associated with developers who would rather anxiously want to recoup their investment earlier than is economically realistic.

While responding to the manifestoes of the presidential candidates of various political parties standing for election in in February, the National President of the NITP said “It’s nice that many of them seem to be thinking that they should be able to provide housing. Housing is mentioned in most of their manifestoes, but the real issue is, what plans do they have for it? It’s not a matter of saying that we are going to build one million housing units in every state, it’s more than that, we need to tie needs to specific places, and that is just because we need to know where the people are going to stay.

Regarding the declaration by a Federal Capital Territory High Court that neither the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, AMMC, nor the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, have the power to name streets or assign numbers to houses in Abuja, Mr. Atebije said: “There are two things that need to be really understood; the spirit of the law and the purpose of the law. Naturally, the creation of area councils in the Federal Capital Territory is a matter of facilitating or enhancing administrative convenience. There is a difference between the city and the whole [of the] Federal Capital Territory. With the complications of the letter of the local government according to the Constitution, everybody is fighting for his right.”

For the year 2023, economic pundits have advanced predictions, but the NITP President says “Housing development also depends upon the level of peace we have in this nation. By the grace of God there will be peaceful elections, and we are going to have reasonable people in government. If that happens, the sky is the limit for investment in housing. People are ready to invest in housing.”