To bridge the nation’s housing deficit of 17 million, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has called the Federal Government to use contributions to the Pension Fund for the development of housing schemes across Nigeria.

Speaking while playing host to the Senate Committee on Land, Housing and Urban Development, which paid him a courtesy visit last weekend, Fashola pointed out that the huge pension fund now trapped and tied down by legislation should be invested in the housing industry for the benefits of the citizens.

He said, “One understands the initiative at the time to lock it down by legislation and limit the areas where investments can be made. It is true that some countries have led housing reforms for their people but they are not federations, they are just republics. South Africa I know, the United Kingdom I know, Singapore I know, but they are not federations.

“We must understand the limitations our federal arrangement imposes upon us and within those limitations try to find ways in which to really achieve our aim”.

The Committee was led by its Chairman and first Governor of Yobe State, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim. Besides, Governor Fashola tasked the Federal Government to deepen the mortgage culture in the country and to also concentrate on research and development as well as education to improve building methods.

He explained that deepening the mortgage culture would enable Nigerians obtain loan they could pay within the productive period of their life at a less cumbersome interest rate.

He said, “In my own humble view, what the Federal Government needs to do is to assist in solving the housing problem is first to deepen the mortgage culture. Nigerians know how to build houses.

What is really the problem is that they can’t afford to buy it. “So how people can get a loan that is tied to their productive period of life at interest rate that will not kill them is what the Federal Government should concentrate on.”

The governor decried many abandoned Federal housing schemes across the country, noting that they were initiated during military regimes and governors then were appointed hence they could never say no to any directives from their bosses.

“Today, disaggregated in Lagos alone, we have identified close to 100 hectares of abandoned Federal Government land; lands that were given for various housing schemes. They build a little and they leave the rest; so it has created so many slums in our state.

And there are several places if you go there you are either met with soldiers and they say you cannot regulate”, he said. He advised the Federal Government to leave the states to develop their housing policies, disclosing that Lagos State Government has already embarked on developing its housing policy to provide houses for Lagosians through its Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS).

He explained further, “What we are doing now is to develop on our own speed a housing policy called Lagos HOMS. It is for first home buyers alone. We are building blocks of flats across. I think by the first quarter of next year we would have completed about 5.000 units of houses. We are trying to start another 5 – 7, 000 units this year that we will complete late next year”.

“The whole idea here is to use taxpayers’ fund to create a basket to finance the scheme because no bank will lend you money at the rate that we take. We are pegging the maximum interest rate below 10 per cent and you would have a minimum of 10 years to repay.

We see that it has worked with markets where people pay at their own pace. So it is easy for them to acquire”, the governor said. Governor Fashola commended the Senate for making its proceedings open to the public , saying such innovations were some of the things that Nigerians look forward to in the emergence of a democracy.

He added, “Whatever rough edges that still remain can only get better”. In his opening remarks, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, explained that the visit of the Committee to Lagos was part of their oversight functions that would take them to all states of the Federation to assess the implementation of the 2013 Budget as it concerns Housing, expressing regrets that budget implementation at the Federal level has been abysmally low over the years.

The Chairman commended the Governor for the vast infrastructure development that has taken place in Lagos in the last six years and the exemplary good governance being demonstrated by Fashola.

2013-08-01