Guardian

Recently, Federal Housing Authority (FHA) was again set on the pathway for commercialisation and its Managing Director, MR. TERVER GEMADE put in charge of the new Interim Management Team. Gemade has a Master of Science Degree in Architecture from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and is a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects. In this interview with Assistant Housing & Environment Editor, CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM, the FHA chief throws more light on the commercialisation process and how he intends to provide outstanding leadership, promote professional excellence and encourage teamwork towards bridging housing gap in the country. Excerpts:

BY the inauguration of an Interim Management Committee team for the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), the Authority seems to have commenced the transition to a fully government owned commercial enterprise. What is the implication of this for housing delivery in the country?

What is happening at the Federal Housing Authority is not a new thing. It’s a continuation of a process that commenced in 1992 with the signing of an agreement with the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialisation (TCPC) as it was then known. As you would know, the TCPC is the precursor to today’s Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE). Unfortunately, the effort was not concluded. By that agreement signed by the TCPC, FHA and the Federal Government, the Authority was to transform into a company of government, operating under the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA). Even as the process was not concluded, FHA was suddenly removed from the budget. By the time you remove a federal government agency from budget, it will no more received any subvention of government. It is presumed that it is on its own, functioning and sustaining itself with its own resources. But this wasn’t the case, that process was just abandoned. For over 10 years, we have been operating without any budget. The present Minister of Land, Housing and Urban Development, Ms Amal Pepple, who is carrying out reforms in the housing sector, under the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, picked up the agreement, dusted it up and called for the reform to continue.

Now, the ministry with assistance of BPE is continuing the commercialization of FHA, supervised by the Technical Board of the Authority, which was instituted with the approval of the President. The Interim Management Team (IMT), which I am heading, will do the day to day running of the affairs of the FHA.

The IMT has taken off and in the first week of its inauguration, we held a meeting with Lagos State Government, officials of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, represented by the Minister herself, the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Chairman, and the residents association of Festac Town. That was with a view to rehabilitating Festac Town back to its former glory. So, we have started working as the IMT.

Why the name Interim Management Team?

Just like name connotes, anything that is interim, means temporary. This team has been given one year under which to operate. It will be watched for one year on its operations before any other decision will be taken. The team has signed a performance agreement with Federal government, represented by the Minister.

The team will now be judged by its performance or otherwise under the agreement.  The agreement is based on target. The key task is for us to drive the commercialization of FHA to completion. Our terms of references include the issue of providing housing. No particular number of houses has been given to us but of course, there is no number of houses we can provide within one year that can be considered enough. Nigeria has a 16 million housing deficit, we can’t build 16 million houses in one year. But we can do the best we can.

Again, considering the facilities available and funding available to us, we can be evaluated by our performance within one year. The gestation period for a house depends on the kind of delivery model we adopt, the spread we make and target market we approach as well as the affordability of the type of housing. We can’t actually say we are giving a number to the housing target. It is not the number that is important; it’s how effective the public is served.

What should the public expect from the FHA under your new team?

Like I said, Nigeria is facing a housing crisis at the moment, and running a deficit. A large number of us do not have our own houses. The situation has been compounded by the fact that the earning capacity of Nigerians is so low; they can’t afford the houses being built by private developers and then government is supposed to build houses that are subsidized for people. There is so much expectation of the public from government. If we are an IMT, representing government in housing, definitely, Nigerians are expecting very high performance from us within this time.

Your organization has for 10 years has been fending for itself. In other words, to all intent and purposes, FHA has been operating like a commercialized organization; what is the difference in the new dispensation we are envisaging?

Having survived for over 10 years, without budget, you know there must have been some gimmicks we have been playing to be able to stay afloat. Therefore, if we have played those gimmicks all this while, then there is no need been taken back to the budget. All we need is to have a takeoff grant to become a commercialized organization and being a commercialized agency means we should be target driven. We should be profit oriented. We should determine targets and strive to meet them. It will no longer be just to build homes for people where they don’t need them, nor to building homes that are not affordable. It is to get the target market and the housing demand, where and how are people going to acquire these houses. It is all encompassing. We should now know ahead what the earning capacity of the people is. Are they supposed to get these homes through mortgage or through direct purchases? Are they going to get the homes at subsidized rates? All these are factors we must now give serious consideration.

What are the challenges facing FHA at this period of its development?

Certainly, there are challenges. Funding has been greatest challenge because you must have funding for production. But see, if we are not considered in the national budget, how are we funding our projects? This is the question that arises. Off course, you don’t get funds easily. You see, our commercial banks, have very high interest rates, you can’t afford to take loans from them and build homes. Housing is a very capital intensive venture and off course, it requires long term funding which is not readily available in this country. If we want to attract offshore funding, you will find out such companies or development agencies will want sovereign guarantee and Nigerian government is not willing to give guarantee to anybody to bring in money. But it is expected that if we are finally commercialized, the government will give us a takeoff grant, and if we are able to get grant, then we will effectively utilize it to provide housing for the people. We will need trillions of Naira to effectively curb the housing shortage in the country.  But we are not looking for trillions. Basically, a couple for hundreds of billions will be enough for us, say like N300 -N500 billion can be a good takeoff grant, which will go long way in providing homes for the low and medium income earners. That is the way to look at, but I am not sure of what the government intends to do with us.

How will you handle the house unions in FHA, which are well known for their vibrant agitations under this new arrangement?

Unions are umbrellas of workers, to cater for their welfare. I don’t think that what is happening at this moment has nothing to make the unions worry about. I have tried to secure their understanding and buy in into what we are doing from day one. We held a meeting with the union leaders on our first day at work when the IMT took charge. Also on the same day, I held a town hall meeting with the entire staff. We allayed their legitimate fears of any impending job losses. I assured them that government is not trying to bring in adverse situations that would affect their welfare negatively. We made it clear that rather, government was determined to improve the organization and of course, their welfare would also improve. However, the point was also made that there has to be a change of attitude. The old civil service orientation has to change completely as it would no longer be business as usual. The performance agreement we have signed is not limited to members of the Interim Management Team alone. The performance agreement will have to cascade downwards.  Everybody will now have measurable targets by which they will be assessed at the end of the year.

FHA plans to transform into a profit making business organization, but you are still expecting to achieve this using the old staff. How do want to achieve the required change or reorientation among the workers?

We are not going to the moon to bring people to do the job. We will still use our staff. Whatever one may say, you cannot take it away from them that they know the terrain. FHA has the largest collection of the best professionals in the built environment in the country. All we need to do and which is already on the cards is to conduct some seminars, retreat and conferences to give the staff a new orientation. That is required immediately to get staff acquainted with the commercialization process. They should understand, it going to improve the service output of the organisation instead of thinking it is detrimental to their work process. So, I believe that things have to be changed for good. But off course, you know, it is not everybody that is trainable.

In some government organisations earlier commercialized, the exercise came with heavy job losses, is the case going to be different for FHA?

Change is constant in the affairs of men. Changes are bound to happen even in your home and if you’re a person that can’t accommodate change, then you must be in trouble. We live in a changing world, so we should also have a change in attitude. Therefore, if your work environment changes, it makes good sense to change with it. If your work ethics changes, you change with it. But if you’re so dogmatic, rigid and impervious to change, then the system has to look for a way to force you to change or drop you. But we are not thinking along such lines now. Rather, we are planning to reorient our staff.

The FHA is notorious for its frequent change of leadership, but you have spent four years and got another mandate for another one year, what accounted for this reappointment?

That is a difficult one to answer. However, I have no doubt in my mind that this is God’s own doing. I have weathered so many storms, and the four years was not a tea party or easy task. We are grateful to God that today; we are seeing gradually, the glories of what is yet to come. I also think that it pays to work hard.