Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs Akon Eyakenyi, stated this at the pre-summit for the proposed Nigeria Housing and Construction Summit/Expo planned for January 2015. She said as she welcomed participants to this workshop tagged ‘Housing Stakeholders Consultative Workshop-Enabling Land, Finance and Concession for Affordable Housing’. Eyakenyi stated that the event was being organised as a Pre-Summit towards ensuring the success of the forthcoming 2-day Nigeria Housing and Construction Summit/Expo which is scheduled to hold in January 2015.
“This initiative is a collaborative effort between the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Ministry of Finance. In this regard, I wish to express my profound appreciation to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for spearheading it and ensuring its timely delivery.”
She said the objective of the Pre-Summit is to present a platform for key players and stakeholders in the Private and Public Sectors of the economy in the housing delivery chain to discuss the challenges and issues militating against the provision of affordable housing in Nigeria.
She said it is also expected that environmentally-friendly new building technologies and solutions which are suitable for adaptation for the provision of affordable mass housing in Nigeria will be explored at this Summit in addition to other viable financial and non-financial incentives which may need to be canvassed in order to ensure the revitalisation of the housing and urban development sector as a key sector for ensuring inclusive and beneficial growth.
She noted that “to build a house in Nigeria is a very expensive task due to the high cost of building materials, prevalence of unskilled labour, unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks and high cost of provision of enabling infrastructure.
“Affordable housing cannot, therefore, be achieved without a drastic reduction in the cost of housing construction and other associated costs which invariably determine the selling price. Consequently, for affordability to thrive, emphasis must shift to reducing the cost of housing construction in order to promote access to affordable homes to the vulnerable segment of our national population.
“It is pertinent, however, to note that affordable housing delivery for the low and middle income earners cannot be achieved without the support of Government and the provision of incentives to encourage the participation of the private sector. This has brought to the fore the call in many quarters for the intervention of Government in the forms of concessions and waivers, especially on building materials as well as the establishment of factories for the production of building materials by offering incentives to investors and building materials manufacturers.”
This, she said was “even more compelling in view of the reality that that the provision of affordable homes for 167 million Nigerians is an arduous task that cannot be left for the Government alone, especially now that the government’s revenue is dwindling.
“It is, therefore, important for all stakeholders to partner with the government for the realization of the vision of Mr. President that all Nigerians deserve to be adequately housed.
“I hope the necessary actions taken at this Pre-Summit will generate a policy document that will form a significant part of the policy options to be considered at major Summit/Expo being planned to hold in January 2015.”
The minister stressed that this initiative is private sector driven and seized the opportunity “to appeal to the organised private sector, manufacturing outfits, finance houses and multilateral agencies to support the proposed Housing and Construction Summit/Expo 2015 by providing financial, technical and material support to make it a huge success.
“It is our expectation that the 2015 Summit will evolve a National plan of action that will be acceptable and implemented by all tiers of Government, as well as other key partners and stakeholders, after it has been adopted consensually. I, therefore, count on your support and cooperation.”
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