Lead Financial Sector Specialist, Finance and Markets, World Bank Group Simon Walley yesterday said Nigeria needed to boost housing development by facilitating an environment conducive for investors.
Wally made the observation at the 32nd Annual Conference and General Meeting of the African Union for Housing Financing (AUHF) in partnership with Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) in Abuja.
The three-day conference, with the theme: “Housing and Africa’s Growth Agenda’’, is organised by Fesadeb Communications Ltd., convener of Annual Abuja Housing Show, and producer of Housing programmes on television.
Wally said Nigeria had the capital to finance affordable housing and did not need capital from other countries to finance housing.
“You do not need capital from outside Nigeria, looking at the level of investment required; Nigerian has got more than enough capital within the country.
“Investors want to put their money into investment and housing is perfect; in that sense, long term investment is what investors are looking for.
“The country needs the right mechanism, tools and methods for turning that domestic naira investments into housing, and that needs to be done on a large scale,’’ Wally said.
He said the critical problem facing Africa is the rate at which the population is growing.
Wally also said the underlying population growth rate and organisation rate combined would present real challenges for Africa in the next 10 to 20 years.
“The country is looking at housing needs in excess of over 150 to 200 housing units per year just to keep up with the demand.
“The problem is that the number of housing needed has not been produced at the moment for Nigeria and other countries, and the result of that is informal housing or slums’’, he said.
Prof. Charles Inangete, NMRC’s chief executive officer explained that housing is paramount to the national economy, adding that Nigeria had an outdated housing data.
“We are still talking of 17 million housing deficit, a data which was created four years ago; we need more current data to make housing policy more relevant,” he said.
Mr Thierno-Habib Hann, senior Housing Finance Regional Lead, International Finance Corporation (IFC), in a presentation , said housing finance could be expanded by making mortgage markets affordable.
According to him, financing for energy efficiency housing and potential by scaling up small loans for home improvement and self construction can boost housing investment.
He listed other factors that can boost housing investment as appropriate support and targeted subsidy policies, the refocusing of government interventions and restructuring of failing housing banks.