The Federal Government on Tuesday hinted that it was planning to invest N500 billion through the Family Homes Fund (FHF) in the next five years in order to reduce the nation’s housing deficit.
The Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Mr Adeyemi Dipeolu, gave the hint while interacting with journalists on the sidelines of the second Nigeria Housing Finance Conference with the theme ‘Innovative Financing of Affordable Housing’ in Abuja.
Dipeolu, who was represented at the forum by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Infrastructure, Ms Imeh Okon, said that FHF would be facilitated through public-private participation (PPP) arrangement.
He explained: “Government is giving FHF N100 billion yearly for the next five years with anticipation that it is going to leverage one trillion naira of private resources.
“This money is essentially to help build social and affordable housing for Nigerians and in this situation, if you earn N30,000 you can be able to buy houses that will be under the FHF”, the Presidential aide added.
According to him, already some houses have been completed in Nassarawa State and about 3,000 to 6,000 units are under construction nationwide.
Dipeolu disclosed further that the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing had also completed more than 2,000 houses of 72 units nationwide under the affordability index with the hope that Nigerians will be able to access them.
Speaking on the issue of high mortgage in the country, the economist said that efforts were on going to ensure cheaper mortgages, noting that if the houses are available and the mortgages are not there, it will challenging for the people to access the houses.
Specifically, he explained that government was also addressing the issue of hidden charges in mortgage acquisition with a view to ensuring affordability of mortgage by ordinary Nigerians.
Dipeolu expatiated: “Most of the mortgages that are being issued right now through the Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) to my understanding make these charges to cover their own administrative costs.
“We have been told about these hidden charges and presently, we are working with the PMBs to see how we can reduce them to the barest minimum so that it will not impact on what the beneficiary has to pay in the long run”, he stressed.
Earlier in his keynote address at the event, Nigeria’s former UN Permanent Representative and Under Secretary-General, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, listed some of the challenges hampering easy delivery of housing as including shortages in land, technology, expert knowledge and skilled manpower, building materials, infrastructure and finance.
The former envoy, who was represented by Amb. Sani Bala, identified other constraints to housing delivery efficiency in the country as insurance of mortgages and properties, estate maintenance and management, legal framework like foreclosure laws and Affordable Housing Bill.
Gambari clarified: “It is important to note that affordable housing cannot be achieved using land purchased at market prices. It is also important to note that for affordable housing to succeed, governments must provide easy access to land and land titles at little or no cost.
“Bulk discounts should also be offered by manufacturers, especially for affordable housing projects.
“Manufacturers of building materials, especially the socially responsible ones should make it a policy or strategy to moderate prices and offer special discounts and terms for housing cooperative societies for affordable housing projects.
“Government should also consider 100 per cent waivers or lowering of import duties on imported building materials, specifically tied to the affordable housing project after the marshal plan being proposed is finally approved”, he added.
Commenting at the forum the Managing Director, NISH, Mr Yemi Adelakun, said that one of the major problems of addressing the housing deficit challenge was that the houses available were not been built to meet the needs of the people.
To tackle the challenge, the industry expert said that the idea of not providing houses to those who are in need of them must be addressed, adding that one way of doing this is to make sure that those houses are given to first home buyers and not those who are going to resell.
According to him, in other countries what they do is to allow first home buyers to buy and they cannot sell until after 10 years thereby ensuring that the houses actually go to the people that need them.
On the issue of pension contributors accessing their funds for housing, the NISH boss noted that guidelines had been developed to ensure that contributors can use their savings for housing but that the guidelines remained unimplemented still because the board had not been established by government.
