….also to embark on Agric Villages and Farm Settlement
Indigent Nigerians who cannot afford to pay house rents will soon smile as the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria (AHCN) is collaborating with the Family Homes Funds Ltd to kick-start a pilot scheme known as the Rental Housing Initiative (RHI);
The RHI is tailored towards the provision of organized rental housing scheme to take care of those who are unable to afford the outright purchase of houses. This rental initiative will be taken to all state capitals to help mitigate pressure of housing challenges in the cities.
Dr Victor Onukwugha, President/ Chairman of Council of AHCN disclosed this in Abuja at the occasion of its two days’ workshop which took place simultaneously with the 47th AGM/107th Council meeting of the association.
While soliciting for the support of state governments to assist their state housing corporations to collaborate with the Association in all states of the federation to achieve the desired objectives of RHI, Dr Victor identified it as a critical area that has been neglected over the years.
He said the association is focusing in collaborating with the Family Homes Funds Ltd to kick-start a pilot scheme of the Rental Housing Initiative which will take off shortly.
AHCN is also focusing on the creation of Agric-Villages and Farm Settlement where agriculture shall be used to drive housing at the local and rural level in all local governments thereby creating job opportunities for millions of jobless youths across the country.
This necessitated the need for sustainable and continuous flow of housing finance that is highly needed and necessary at this time for the sustenance of these key housing initiatives by both public and private housing agencies., he said while adding that there is no doubt that state housing agencies have potential to meet the housing needs of the people but this cannot be achieved without the support of the state governments.
‘’ It is therefore important that Governments should engage and support their Federal and State Housing Agencies to make those corporations more relevant to their statutory responsibilities in ensuring housing availability and affordability across Nigeria. Time and situation are changing and we cannot afford to be doing things the way we were doing it in the past and expect to get results that will solve emerging challenges. It is time therefore to work together as stakeholders to holistically tackle our housing problems.’’ He said.
The AHCN President further enumerated the fact that the housing sector has potentials that can be tapped for driving our economic recovery ‘’ if only we choose to get our act together to tackle housing deficit and affordability challenge. It is time to deviate from just talking without matching it with action. Stakeholders in the sector must embrace partnership options to help one another with strong advocacy group to influence decisions at all level of policy formulation and implementation’’
