• Target 800,000 homes annually
The Federal Government has commenced the validation of a draft roadmap for the housing and urban development sector, which is a strategic framework of action for 30 years aimed at launching a housing revolution in Nigeria and also provide the pathway for transforming cities into livable and functional human settlements.
The strategic goals the Road Map seeks to achieve includes, facilitating private sector led delivery of 800,000 homes per annum over the next 10 years, facilitate implementation of special housing programme to promote the delivery of 200,000 units per annum over the next 10 years, establish and enforce standards based on the National Building Code to ensure quality, functionality, aesthetics and safety.
Other goals are: Make cities and human settlements inclusive productive, safe, livable and sustainable and make serviced land with secure tenure easily available, accessible, transferable and at an affordable price for housing development among others.
Meanwhile, about $700 million is to be spent annually on the delivery of 800,000 housing units through partnership with the private sector.
Speaking at the national stakeholders validation workshop on Monday in Abuja, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Ako Etim Eyakenyi, observed that the revalidated Draft Roadmap, once approved, will provide the pathway for navigating through the housing and urban development sector over the next 30 years, with a view to consolidating on the gains recorded under the Transformation Agenda and making sustained, goal-oriented and innovative interventions to optimize the contribution of the sector to accelerated national development.
Eyakenyi noted that through the instrumentality of the roadmap, a new paradigm of action orientation, meticulous planning and well-articulated programmes for enhanced performance and impactful results towards repositioning the housing and urban development sector would evolve.
She said that the ministry in collaboration with key stakeholders and partners is expected to set a clear direction for the transformation of the housing and urban development sector in both short and long terms as outlined in Vision 20:20:20, the transformation agenda and other National Development Plans.
The minister said, “Ministerial Implementation Team (MIT) for Housing Delivery in Nigeria was constituted by the Ministry to provide it with modalities for translating the two policies into action. It is in this regard that the Ministerial Implementation Team recommended the development of a Roadmap for the Housing and Urban Development Sector as a strategic tool to set a clear direction for the transformation of the housing and urban development sector. This is with a view to achieving the envisaged targets and aspirations for the sector, in both the short and long terms, as outlined in Vision 20:2020, the Transformation Agenda and other emerging National Development Plans.”
She expressed delight that while the Draft Roadmap was being articulated, the National Planning Commission (NPC) began the process of developing a 30-year National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan which has been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC)
Eyakenyi said government is committed to the realisation of the sector aspiration and targets of the housing and regional development component of the plan document for the revitalization and accelerated transformation of the housing and urban development sector.
The minister announced that government in partnership with stakeholders has finalized the revision of the National Building Code, adding that she would ensure that the Revised Code is approved by government in record time.
The minister urged the stakeholders to consider and approve the Draft Roadmap to enable them commence the next phase of securing the approval of relevant authorities for its speedy implementation as a consensual national framework of action for the reinvigoration of the housing and urban development sector after its approval.
The President, Real Estate Association of Nigeria (REDAN) who noted that with the roadmap, everything in the sector would be done in the most cost-effective manner, added that products that would eventually come into the market are of international standards adding that it is a collective responsibility of all the stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of the roadmap. The Guardian
