MOVES toward easing housing and accommodation challenges may be boosted soon, following moves to increase the housing stock in the Southwest of the country.
Under the ambitious project, renowned property firm, Messrs WEMABOD Estates Limited, owned by Odu’a investment group, plans to collaborate with state governments in the construction of about 5,000 housing units.
Former Governor of Ekiti State, Otunba Niyi Adebayo who dropped the hint recently at a seminar to mark WEMABOD’s bicentenary, explained that the firm is in talks with government for the actualization of the project.
He stressed that housing provision is a priority of the company even as the measure is planned by the company to ease housing and accommodation challenges in the Southwest.
Similarly Director of Director Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Ola Bello revealed that the firm would soon be unveiling the largest shopping mall in the county adding that it is out to build 500 housing units in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, and 5,000 shops tagged ‘Neighbourhood Market’ across the state.
Prof Babatunde Agbola, from the Department Of Urban And Regional Planning
Faculty Of The Social Sciences, University Of Ibadan, while taking participants through the rudiments of housing delivery in the country explained that despite government’s intervention and huge investments in housing provision since the colonial times, Nigeria’s housing problems still remained intractable.
He stressed:“In fact, before the emergence of the transformation agenda in 2011, access to decent housing has worsened for increasing segments of the Nigerian population. A cursory look at the state of the housing sector tells a tale of a huge paradox - a paradox of achieving so little with so much. Inspite of the activities of past government in Nigeria, housing sector is in a state of coma, neither dying nor living. After more than six decades of independence, the housing sector still remains highly undeveloped.
Agbola while extoling Wemabod for its rich history and its continuing good performances, called on the firm to set housing production goals that would benefit a cross section of Nigerians especially in its mandates states of operation.
“Indeed, one of the reasons why the country is yet to maximize the development impact of housing industry on the national economy is the high foreign content of her housing components. Therefore, a major focus of the future housing sector in Nigeria is the one with high local content. This will rely heavily on reform in our industrial and manufacturing policy, particularly to ensure availability of local/indigenous building materials of the right quality for mass housing.” Agbola added
As to the challenge for Wemabod, Agbola stressed that the firm must play an active part in regard for the general populace stressing that it must spread its long list of estates in Lagos alone to other states.
Chairman, WEMABOD Estates Dr. Adebayo Adewusi at the event also revealed that government alone cannot solve the problem of housing which points to the fact that the private sector is key to addressing the challenge.
Also President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Mr. Emeka Eleh called on government to tackle three strategic areas which are land titling, mortgage finance, and infrastructure decay in other to solve the problem of housing.
He stressed that the sector like other sectors which have receieved government support need a form of subsidy boost.
“If the government has assisted other sector why not the housing. I truly commend the management of WEMABOD which is still one of the few property firms set up by the government that is still thriving” he added.
Wemabod also recently commissioned 12-unit apartment block at Adeniyi Jones area of Ikeja Lagos state tagged Golden Court estate.
The estate consists of three bedroom flats with facilities such as security, borehole, standby generator, intercom in each flat and Jaccuzi bath areas.
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