By Ifeanyi Onuba, Abuja

At a conservative average cost of N3.5m per unit, the Federal Government currently needs a whopping N60tn to tackle the country’s 17 million housing units’ deficit.

The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Ama Pepple, gave the figure in Abuja at a stakeholders’ roundtable on housing and mortgage finance organised by the World Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Pepple, while putting the housing need of the country at 17 million units, noted that the N60tn was far beyond what the three tiers of government could provide.

She said, “Equally deserving of our attention is the urgency of taking appropriate measures to rehabilitate the preponderance of dilapidated housing units across the country, most of which are unfit for habitation.

“At an average conservative cost estimate of N3.5m per unit, the minimum financial requirement of providing 17 million new housing units in Nigeria is N60tn.”

“Undoubtedly, this is far beyond the capacity of the three tiers of our government, bearing in mind the need to address other competing needs of critical sectors of the economy,” the minister added.

In order to ameliorate the current problems in the housing sector, she said the Federal Government had recognised the need to review the National Building Code and target low income earners in the delivery of affordable houses.

She added that President Goodluck Jonathan would work with the National Assembly to ensure that bills critical to the transformation of the housing sector were enacted without delay.

With regards to the provision of land across the country for the mass housing initiative, the minister said that the Federal Government would collaborate with the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory Administration to resolve the challenges militating against the vibrancy of the housing sector.

Also speaking at the event, the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, CBN, Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, said that the apex bank had concluded plans to put in place a robust financing system that would address the high cost of housing delivery in the country.

He said that the apex bank would engage all stakeholders in the sector to drive the needed reforms, as well as develop strategies that would expand the availability of affordable houses to low income groups in the country.

Stressing that the housing/mortgage sector remained grossly underdeveloped; Moghalu noted that except all tiers of government facilitated access to housing finance, the situation would not change.

“In the face of these challenges and given that housing/mortgage finance is a key component of the financial services industry, it has become imperative for the CBN to champion the reform efforts in the sub-sector,” Moghalu said.

He said that the proposed reform agenda for the sector would entail strategically re-positioning and strengthening the primary mortgage banks as a vehicle for housing delivery and home-ownership in Nigeria, as well as promoting a robust housing finance system through market support initiatives to unlock home equity in both urban and rural areas.

The deputy governor, however, listed the measures to be put in place to include, appropriate legal framework, accelerated development and production of affordable houses, development of institutional framework, and establishment of a mortgage refinance/liquidity company, among others.

Source: Punch