₦airaland Forum

Concerned about the report of the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, which puts Nigeria’s housing deficit at 17 million, President Muhammadu Buhari during his electioneering campaign promised to build one million new housing units annually. However, industry stakeholders see the target set by the President as a tall order which may not be feasible unless huge fiscal sacrifices are made to fund the capital-intensive sector. SYLVA EMEKA-OKEREKE reports

Experts in the housing sector have argued that it will take Nigeria several years of long planning to actually close the yawning housing gaps.

This is as they noted that if the Federal Government really wants to build the one million housing units yearly as promised, houses, it clearly cannot achieve it in the next ten years, as Nigeria may not have enough building experts to realize the promise.

Beyond the housing units, the President also promised to create 720,000 jobs in one year with 20,000 jobs per state yearly for people with basic education. Experts also said, the Federal Government may not have adequate clear plans to accomplish these ambitious goals.

John Adeyemi, a property expert said, several months had gone in the present administration, without a clear roadmap to meet the target. ‘’If you want to build one housing units within a year, you don’t wait half the time before you come up with a programme.

It is very clear that the government has no serious intention to pursue this housing programmes that will produce one million housing units a year’, Adeyemi stated. ‘’Just imagine one million new housing units in this country.

It will take years just for first level planning and then take more years to actually build the houses. That is, if the government really wants to build the houses and if it does, the government clearly cannot achieve it in four years. You don’t have to be a building expert to see that this promise is unrealistic’’, he stated.

He therefore advised the Federal Government to stop proposing fantastic ideas that will never going to get off the ground, saying this is not what the Nigerian people really want.

According to him, what the people really want is a visible improvement in the housing sector as well as other sectors of the nation’s economy.

It would be recalled that the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, had revealed that Nigeria has about 17 million housing deficits, heightening speculations that the country needs over 5,000 housing units annually in the next 12 years to fill the yawning gap.

“We are ready to reform the housing sector. We don’t have housing units and the few ones we have are in the hands of few individuals at the top of the echelon in the society.

So, we are looking at what government can do in the aspect of the reform, so that private sectors can be empowered as in other countries of the world to provide the housing units”, he stated.

As it is, it is likely that the prices of houses will continue to rise, but at a slower pace than we have seen in the outgoing year, with most experts predicting less than 5%, though, there might be considerable variations in some states, depending on land mass as well as locations.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had recently revealed that Nigeria has about 17 million housing deficits, heightening speculations that the country needs over 5,000 housing units annually in the next 12 years to fill the yawning gap.

It would be recalled that the housing deficit rose from 7 million in 1991 to 12-15 million in 2008 and 17-18 million in 2012 and unless the federal government is able to deliver on its promise to provide one million new housing units yearly, the situation will get worse.

UNDP had during the report urged Nigerian government to adopt a multi-pronged approach to redress the housing shortages, listing those methods to include involvement of central, regional and local governments in housing projects.

This collaboration, according to the global agency would involve private sector, nongovernmental agencies, community associations as well as developing a viable mortgage finance sector to assist the private sector.

Already, the World Bank had warned that the rising population could hit more than 200 million by the year 2050, which would increase rural and urban drifts as well as the rising building costs, exerting serious pressure for shelter.

Federal Ministry of Housing had earlier disclosed that since the establishment of the Federal Housing Authority, FHA, in 1973, it has been able to deliver only 35,309 housing units nationwide with Lagos metropolis having the highest number of the units.

Investigation has shown that the number of housing units in Lagos metropolis rose from 393,000 in 1970s to 700,000 in 1992 and grew further to 1.25 million units in 2012.

It would be noted that since the second phase of the national policy on housing was announced in 1972, under which about 5 million housing units were said to be delivered by the three tiers of government, less than 200,000 have actually been delivered till date.

With the growing population of over 160 million, experts said, Nigeria needs more than 17 million new housing units to withstand the test of time with an estimated costs of over N50 trillion to reverse the trends.

Currently, over 80 per cent of Nigerian adults are said to be living in rented apartments, compared to 19 percent in South Africa and 22 percent in Ghana. Already, there is an urgent need for guest houses in urban area and it has been growing on daily basis.

In some Nigerian cities, residential accommodations have disappeared while commercial properties like eateries, banks and telecom offices have taken over the apartments.

Also, some of these cities have developed reputations for excessive night life services like clubs and shopping malls, thus making the prices of the property in those areas, to go up as the demands are hitting the rooftop. Just as some stakeholders are seeing the incoming 2015 as a year of contrasting halves, they however noted that there might be actually a huge rise in property prices.

They also noted that 2015 will be a year of rapid development of properties, especially estates and blocks of apartments.

Plots of land would be bought at the fastest rate, if the Land Use Act is being reviewed by the federal government to give developers easy and comfortable access to develop more housing units in the country.

There is also greater need for security and infrastructure to spur more demands for serviced estates and apartments, where people will feel safe with access to water and light.

They therefore advocated for the housing models of some countries like Singapore, South Africa and United States of America, where private operators were encouraged to build more housing units, using modular technology to achieve it.

To give flip to these models, there will be need to recapitalize the nation’s mortgage banks, which is not only necessary, but very urgent to attract capital funding to support the real estate development.

Overall more homes need to be built to meet demands and in 2015, there would be tremendous steps to access loans by developers and the deals offered could be the key to more successful housing units in the coming year and beyond.

Experts have said, that until the monetary authorities bring down the interest rates to single digits to enable low income earners to obtain affordable mortgage financing, the nation’s mortgage industry will remain at its present dismal level, contributing below one per cent to gross domestic product, compared to 24.7 per cent in Malaysia, 29 per cent in South Africa, and 85 percent in New Zealand, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria, which has laid out plans for a N200 billion intervention fund.

Federal governments should as a matter of urgency, invest massively in basic infrastructure like roads, electricity and water, whose inadequacy has increased the cost of building.

The state governments should as well, engage private sector to target millions of new housing aimed at developing well-planned new towns. Collaborative efforts between the government, research institutes and private developers are necessary to promote alternative building materials as against the expensive cement-based block style that often accounts for over 40 percent of the total costs.

Government should revive its reforms of the mortgage sector to reverse a situation, where over 70 per cent of all housing projects is undertaken by private individuals and informal sector, where mortgage loans account for only 0.5 per cent of all lending, compared to 30-40 per cent in other emerging economies and 60-80 per cent in developed economies.

There is no doubt that Nigeria should adopt similar models like the South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Plan, which delivered 2.3 million housing units in the last 13 years.

Also, China’s Affordable Housing Policy delivered 12 million units in five years and similar programmes in Canada, Kenya, Sweden, France and Tanzania, where tax holidays, cooperatives, savings and loans strategies are utilised to make housing available to low and medium income earners.

Nigerian government should also encourage Lagos state government to revive its mass housing scheme, initiated by the former governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande to increase housing units, rather than spending billions to reclaim land and buildings meant largely for the rich while leaving the tax-paying poor masses to their faith. NEWS 80% Nigerian adults, 19% Ghanaians live in rented apartments-Investigation

A recent investigation has shown that over 80 per cent of Nigerian adults are said to be living in rented apartments, compared to 19 percent in South Africa and 22 percent in Ghana.

Prior to now, the World Bank had warned that the rising population could reach 289 million by 2050, thereby increasing rural and urban drift as well as rising building costs, exerting pressure on shelter. UNDP had noted that many Nigerians live in slum areas, warning that the number might increase over time.

According to the investigation, the housing deficit rose from 7 million in 1991 to 12-15 million in 2008 and 17-18 million in 2012, noting that unless the federal government is able to deliver on its recent promise to provide one million new housing units yearly, the situation will get worse.

Nigeria is tightening rules against investors in a move analysts say is evidence of a government struggling to cope with fiscal pressures in the face of plunging oil prices, creating more unpredictability for Africa’s biggest economy.

MTN Group Ltd. was fined $5.2 billion by Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator last week, more than 20 percent of the mobile-phone company’s market value, for failing to comply with an order to disconnect customers with unregistered phone cards. In the same week, regulators also imposed fines on Standard Bank Group Ltd.’s Nigerian unit, United Bank for Africa Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Ltd.


“It’s worrying, the bank fines, the telecommunication fines,” Clement Nwankwo, executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, said by phone on Monday from Abuja, the capital. “I don’t get the sense what the economic direction is. If Nigeria is broke and agencies are fining companies to make up for the shortfall in oil revenues then that is something that we should be worried about.”

Nigeria has no finance minister or clear economic policy five months after President Muhammadu Buhari took office on pledges to combat corruption, end an insurgency by Boko Haram militants and bolster the economy. He has had to do that with dwindling resources after oil prices fell 55 percent since June last year. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest crude producer, with oil making up more than two-thirds of government income.

MTN Slump

“The fiscal headwinds facing Nigeria has resulted in an increasingly assertive regulatory regime in Nigeria,” Martyn Davies, managing director of emerging markets and Africa at Deloitte & Touche in Johannesburg, said in an e-mailed reply to questions. “These fiscal pressures are resulting in greater pressure on companies, local but particularly multinational, to comply.”

MTN shares have slumped 22 percent since Oct. 26, when the company said it’s facing a fine. Trading in the stock was halted temporarily in Johannesburg on Monday after earlier dropping as much as 9.7 percent. It resumed after the company published a statement confirming it’s still in talks with the Nigerian Communications Commission on resolving the matter. The shares closed 6.1 percent lower at 148.17 rand.

Tony Ojobo, a spokesman for the NCC, said on Oct. 29 that investors are required to comply with the rules or face penalties. He said on Monday that there’s no update to be disclosed on the MTN fine. Femi Adesina, a spokesman for Buhari, said by phone the MTN penalty is not a matter for the Nigerian presidency, referring queries to the NCC.
The penalties signal “that the new government is serious about compliance, which, over the medium term, should be beneficial for business,” Cobus de Hart, an analyst at NKC Independent Economists, said by phone from Paarl, near Cape Town. “However, given the understandably fickle investor sentiment currently in the country, being too strict too quickly will adversely affect the business environment and investors may become even more anxious.”

Investor confidence has slowly eroded this year. In September, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it will remove Nigeria from its emerging-market bond indexes, as foreign-exchange restrictions imposed by the central bank to help stabilize the naira and reserves caused liquidity to dry up. Buhari has backed the central bank’s currency controls even though it’s hurting importers and growth in an economy that expanded at its slowest pace this decade, at 2.4 percent, in the second quarter.

Buhari is yet to disclose the portfolios of his 36 cabinet nominees, who were all approved by the Senate last week during confirmation hearings.

“Certainly it is important that the regulatory agencies are active and taking action against companies that violate the rules of business,” Nwankwo said. “But it is always useful that this be done in the context of a national economic policy.”

TonyeBarcanista:
No sir! I haven't held any public office at any time.

Sleekyshuga:
True.. The wind of change is blowing ..

The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali has said that his decision to sack a total of 35 senior offi cers of the service comprising Deputy Comptrollers General, Assistant Comptrollers General and some Comptrollers is in line with the mandate given to him by President Muhammandu Buhari.

The service had last Thursday last week , compulsorily retired all the fi ve Deputy Comptrollers-General of the service comprising John Atte, Ibrahim Mera, Musa Tahir, Austin Nwosu and Akinade Adewuyi.

The CG, who also announced the sack of three Assistant Comptrollers General at the weekend, consisting of Madu Mohammed, who was Secretary to the Nigeria Customs Board, Victor Gbemudu, Zonal Coordinator Zone ‘A’ and Bello Liman, Assistant Comptroller-General in charge of Headquarters, said the exercise was in line with the on-going re-organisation in the Service.

According to him, the retirement of the 35 offi cers, which takes immediate effect as part of the re-organisation of the Service, is one of his core mandates handed down by the president.

Also affected in the shakeare offi cers of the rank of Comptrollers serving in Customs Headquarters, Zonal Offi ces and various Area Commands.

Ali also stated that the retirements were part of measures to kick-start the repositioning of the Service for improved performance.

The President had in September appointed Col. Hameed Ali, a military offi cer, who retired over 20 years ago as the CG of the service following the voluntary retirement Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, who served for fi ve years

The new CG had on resumption of duty, indicated that part of his mandate as the new helms man for the service by President Buhari would consist of Reform, Reform, Restructure and Revenue RRR,.

The CG, who paid his maiden working visit to the service’s commands and other seaport facilities in Lagos, had while addressing news men after the fi ve day visit ruled out the possibility of sacking offi cers and men of the service.

He had also said that only a very few offi cers and men of the service are corrupt, contrary to widely held belief even around the government circles.

It was also gathered that the CG may also have set the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC against the six sacked top offi cers, who he had investigated on resumption of offi ce with the support of the anti-graft agency and the Directorate of State Security Service DSS.

Maritime stakeholders, who reacted to the mass retirement, noted that those of the fi ve DCGs were expected but said that those of Comptrollers and ACGs were not.

They argued that the compulsory retirement of some ACGs and Comptrollers may not be unconnected with the outcome of the corruption and security checks conducted by the CG in conjunction with the DSS and EFCC.

President Buhari had come under heavy criticisms by stakeholders following the appointment of the new CG, who they argued knew next to nothing about customs administration.

They argued that the appointment of a retired military offi cer, which was second of its type, as late General Sani Abacha appointed Ango Abdullahi, to head a highly Information Communication Technology ICT-driven will take the service back by over 10 years.

These stakeholders believe that the best the president should have done is to fi sh out a young offi cer, who is untainted and not corrupt to purge the system so as to maintain professionalism and effi ciency in the service.

“Bringing a complete novice in customs operations at this stage in the history and reform of Customs administration was the worst thing to happen to the service, especially under a democratic dispensation”, the stakeholders further argued.

texazzpete:
Unfortunately , common sense also didn't 'catch' you.

PDP pigs and locusts are always wailing that the anti-corruption war is one sided. When you see APC chieftains like Sylva and Saraki being investigated, it's to make up one manner of excuse or another to continue justifying their persecution complex.

I pity you folks sha. When PDP finally goes under in 2019, what will you people do?

dayo23:
Islam is a Religion of Peace but all Terrorist are islam.....enough said! Beside the whole world will be a better place without Islam

Sleekyshuga:
Indeed a wishful thinking .. This will pass as a note of warning to other network providers.. Most of the shits they do here cannot be tolerated in SA, though I see a massive retrenchment of over 50%..
NCC should peddle down, and agree to a spread payment..

#1.04tr is a generation changer..