Affordable housing: Association advocates campaign for use of local materials
NAN-H-95
Materials
By Monday Ijeh
Abuja, May 11, 2017 (NAN) The Association of Housing Corporation of Nigeria (AHCN) on Thursday called for urgent campaign at the grassroots for the use of local building materials to ensure affordable housing in Nigeria.
Mr Mohammed Adamu, the President of AHCN made the call in Abuja when he visited the Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr Ahmed Dangiwa.
He said the use of Housing Cooperatives was another tool that could promote affordable housing in the country.
According to him, with the National Housing Cooperatives Policy in place, AHCN is better prepared to educate the people on the use of the cooperatives for home ownership.
“Various attempts have been made in recent past to address the problem of affordable housing by the Federal Government.
“The mandate given to the Federal Housing Authority to deal with Social Housing and the constitution of various committees were efforts to provide affordable housing in the country,” he said.
Adamu said the recommendations of the various committees were yet to be implemented, adding that members of AHCN were the pillars for the implementation of the various strategies being put in place.
He said the high cost of building materials and infrastructure had kept the prices of housing units high in the country.
According to him, most prospective home seekers who are genuinely in need of housing are not financially empowered.
“We have a scenario where some completed housing units in some parts of the country are lying unsold and uninhabited arising from the affordability question.
“This affordability question has created serious challenge to the availability of housing finance into the sector as real estate financiers usually request for off-takers guarantee,” he added.
Dangiwa commended the delegation for the visit and added that the FMBN had over the years enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the association.
He said the mutual relationship had resulted to the approval of Estate Development Loan (EDL) to deliver 10,000 housing units across the country.
He said the suspended EDL was still open to state-owned housing corporation developing houses for contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme.
He identified government renege on its promises to provide infrastructure, delay in packaging NHF mortgage loans to off-takers and delay in mortgage perfection as challenges facing housing corporations in the country.
The FMBN boss called for strengthened collaboration with stakeholders to improve engagement with state governments. (NAN)
IMC/ELLA/AFA
Edited by Felix Ajide