The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Housing

  • ‘Lagos govt is committed to affordable housing delivery’

    ‘Lagos govt is committed to affordable housing delivery’

    The Lagos State government has concluded plans to deliver 20,000 housing units in the next three years. This is aside the 4,355 housing units that have been commissioned across the three senatorial districts in the state. This, according to the government, will reduce the housing deficit gap and improve Lagosians‘ access of to affordable housing.

    This was the submission of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode last week at the celebration of the World Habitat Day in Lagos. The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Mrs. Idiat Adebule, said the effort was connected to the overall objective of making the state liveable, especially its urban renewal and slum upgrading/regeneration.

    According to the Ambode, this year’s celebration, themed: “Housing Policies: Affordable Homes,” is an integral part of the “Lagos @ 50” celebration to showcase the administration’s achievements in regeneration and urbanisation of the state.

    He further stressed that with this year’s theme, the United Nations (UN) was calling the attention of governments around the world to the need to make housing within the reach of the common man.

    “Shelter is one of the basic needs of man. The challenge before us is to explore innovative ways by which this can be achieved through public private part Wcontent in the construction of houses, ensure efficiency in land utilisation, as well as develop a financing system that is convenient, reasonable and economical,” the governor noted.

    He said his administration’s position on affordable housing has been demonstrated through the Rent-to-Own scheme and Rental Housing Initiative, which are specifically designed with the low income and middle income earners in mind. Under both schemes, Ambode said, apart from reducing the initial deposit requirement from 30 per cent to five per cent, a larger proportion of 80 per cent of the total stock of housing units under this programme is dedicated to the Rent–to-Own scheme, which is targeted at the low income group.

    He listed some of the projects the state is implementing under this include the redevelopment of Adeniji Adele Phase I-V, comprising 720 housing unit, into a residential mixed use development of 2, 500 – 3, 500 housing units and the redevelopment of Isale Gangan Phase I leading to the construction of 11–floor structure, which comprised 48 serviced luxury apartments. The second phase of this project, planned to be a 13-floor structure, is under construction.

    “As we strive to provide the enabling environment for investment in the housing sector, we are open to new ideas, new technology and new methods, the private sector remains our key partner in ensuring the delivery of decent, functional and affordable housing in the quantity that will match the increasing demand across the state,” Ambode remarked.

    Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Anifowoshe Abiola, said making housing available and within the reach of the common man is one of the most critical issues in the socio-economic well-being of the people. This, he explained, is the reason the ministry is ready to partner more than ever before, with all stakeholders in the built environment in order to realise and bridge the gap of the housing stock deficit.

    The guest speaker at the event, Mr. Fola Arthur-Worrey, maintained that the citizens have a responsibility of paying their taxes to make the implementation housing policies and actualising same to happen. He advised that people should have a clear cut idea of what they intend to use a house for before embarking on its ownership because owning a house is not necessarily a must.

    “The reality is that majority of people cannot afford a home by themselves, hence, the reason for informal houses,” Arthur-Worrey said, while urging government to intervene in the unhealthy relationship between landlords and tenants, especially as it concerns incessant increase in rent.

    Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Gbolahan Lawal, argued that to make houses affordable, there is a need to scale up the income of the citizens. He also advised the Federal Government to reduce interest rate on mortgage so that transaction cost will be reduced and that more people can come into the mortgage net.

    In a similar vein, the UN Habitat programme manager in Nigeria, Kabir Yari, commended the state for consistently hosting the World Habitat Day and for being the only state in the country to be doing so.

    He said affordable housing is a challenge that has made a lot of Africans live in slums, including about 60 per cent of the population living in informal settlements without water. He disclosed that this year’s Habitat Day is used by the UN to reflect on the state of towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter.

    “Housing policies: Affordable homes, promotes one of UN-Habitat’s focal areas such as inclusive housing and social services. A safe and healthy living environment for all. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) number 11 target is that by 2030, everybody should live in safe and affordable houses; I have no doubt that Lagos State will continue to do the right thing,” Yari submitted.

  • Housing: Still a long way to go

    Housing: Still a long way to go

    Nigeria’s housing deficit has remained a sore point in the country’s history. Stakeholders are concerned that 17 million Nigerians are in need of shelter – a gap they claim has continued to widen. Has the several initiatives of the government made any impact on the shortfall in housing? MUYIWA LUCAS asks.

    Shelter  in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ranks prominent. It is, therefore, understandable why man’s desire to own his house remains a priority for him.

    However, considering the harsh economic environment in the country, this dream has become elusive for most Nigerians. And for a country, whose average citizens live on less than $1 daily, this dream of home ownership may remain just that – a dream.

    Although various states and the Federal Government are making  efforts to bridge the gap, these seem to have yielded very negligible amount.

    From the Rent-to-own scheme of the Lagos State government, to the various private initiatives, housing solution seems to be on the front burner.

    However, after 57 years of independence, stakeholders in the built environment have scored the government low in housing provision. This is because, over the years, the Federal Government did not see housing as a social responsibility until the preparation of the Third National Development Plan.

    According to a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Kola Akomolede, if there is any sector that has suffered neglect most, since the country’s independence, it is housing. Except for one or two regimes, he revealed, successive governments have treated housing as a non-important subject.

    He noted that though the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) was established by the government in 1973, the most the Authority had achieved was the construction of the FESTAC Town –  a gigantic project abandoned half way. Part of the land acquired for the scheme is still undeveloped. The FHA further built more houses at Satellite Town in Lagos and some in Maitama and Asokoro in Abuja.

    Efforts to solve the housing problem led to the adoption of the roadmap on housing and urban development.

    This, it was hoped, will give effect to the National Housing and the National Urban Development Policies. These include the FHA’s restructuring and the opening of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) – set up in 2014 – and the recapitalisation of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).

    “Mortgage finance is the bedrock of any housing scheme. During the Ibrahim Babangida regime, the National Housing Fund (NHF) was established to collect money from workers for the mortagage sector. Unfortunately, its implementation  was poor. The Goodluck Jonathan administration came up with the NMRC, but the effect is yet to be felt. As at today, housing purchase remains a “cash and carry “matter, which is not the practice in civilised parts of the word. It is, in fact, one of the reasons corruption will be difficult to stop in Nigeria,” Akomolede claimed.

    He said the outlook was still gloomy. Even without any accurate data or statistics, he explained, there is evidence of housing shortage, especially in the cities.

    This, he said, has manifested in high rents, overcrowding, slums and shanties. Akomolede went on: “There doesn’t appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel as far as the housing problem is concerned as there are no indications that the government is ready to take the bull by the horn, especially in the light of our economic situation.

    ‘’The minister of housing has promised us the construction of houses all over the country. I, however, doubt if this will be possible in  the face of the recession,” he said.

    A former NIESV President, Emeka Eleh, listed the impediments to housing delivery as: lack of long-term funds, worsened by  high interest rates, thereby making it impossible to use such funds for housing.

    Eleh said the mortgage sector remained largely inactive, while the National Housing Fund (NHF), meant to be  accessed  at  the  rate  of nine per cent, is not due to its numerous requirements. He however said the government was reviewing the process.

    The Land Use Decree (now Act) 6 of 1978, Eleh said, has also hindered housing delivery. The Act is meant to make land available for home  ownership. He said getting a Certificate of Occupancy has made transactions in land tedious, time consuming and expensive.

    In developed countries, he said, reliance on properties as collaterals for raising loans for other developments is common. However, in Nigeria, this is not the case as the decree has made properties unattractive for collaterals.The result, he explained, is that the properties, which could be easy to purchase and disposed of, are still lacking.

    Poor infrastructural development is also a factor because a large percentage of the population are cramped into those areas where  basic  facilities  exist,  leading to overstretching of such facilities and high cost of land and finished houses in those areas.

    Other reasons, he listed, include the high cost of building materials and the high import dependence of the sector, construction methods, which rely on the traditional, has also not helped the sector.

    Industrialised building systems, which are very costly and time efficient for mass housing projects are still uncommon, leading to low reliance on the capital market for funds for housing development.

    There are only about two property development companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and only one real estate investment trust (REIT).

    Eleh said the poor  state  of  public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements  at  the state and federal levels has also affected housing delivery.

    “With the level of funding available to the  government  reducing daily,  funding  of  projects through the PPP approach should be encouraged. It is noteworthy  that  this  approach  is   being  used  by  various levels of government but a lot still needs to be done to institutionalise it. It is pertinent to note  that the infrastructure concession an regulatory commission is working hard on this process,” Eleh added.

    However, experts and stakeholders said all hope for a better housing sector was not lost. This is only if the government can put its acts together and see to the implementation of effective housing policies and not just pronouncements.

  • Housing project: ICPC arraigns NUT treasurer, contractors over N495.8m fraud

    Housing project: ICPC arraigns NUT treasurer, contractors over N495.8m fraud

    The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said yesterday it has arraigned the Treasurer of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Abuja Municipal, Mr. Percy Ndam, to court for alleged  N495.8 million fraud.

    Ndam was accused of conspiring with two contractor, Frank Igbinedion and Uche Nwedi,  to convert the cash into personal use.

    The said funds were meant for NUT Housing Loan Scheme.

    According to a statement by the ICPC spokesperson, Mrs. Rasheedat A. Okoduwa (mni), Ndam is facing a five-count charge before Justice Adegbola Adeniyi of the Federal Capital High Court 20, Apo.

    Counsel to ICPC Mr. Raheem Adesina, while pressing the charges against the three suspects, told the court that Ndam and his associates committed the crime between November, 2011 and October, 2015.

    The statement said: “The court heard that Ndam allegedly stole N296 million of the union’s money.

    “He was accused of converting N221 million from the operational account of the union to personal use in one instance and further received another N75.2 million belonging to the same union from Isaac Sanda, who is a managing director of Contemporary Archivision Ltd, a company involved in the housing scheme.

    “The court was also told that Mr. Igbinedion and Saframic Homes Ltd were paid N113.9 million in January 2012 for the processing of title documents for the land and for payment of compensation to the villagers, whose land had been acquired for the project, but allegedly embezzled N93. 899 million of the sum under the pretext of spending it on a payment to an unspecified task force and for the reprocessing of the Technical Drawing Plans (TDP) of the project.

    “Igbinedion and Saframic Homes Ltd were again accused by the commission of allegedly converting N50 million out of N100 million the former had received for payment to a company, Kenia Integrated Ltd, for the processing of title documents.

    “On their own part, Nwedi and NCR & Associates Ltd were accused of converting N56.7 million belonging to NUT to personal use under the pretext of spending the money on Land Offer Letters, TDP and payment to a consultant.”

    The statement said the offences “contravene Section 311 and are punishable under Section 312 of the Penal Code Act Cap 532, Volume 4 Laws of the FCT, Nigeria”.

    It added: “All the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges when read to them as their counsel applied for their bail, which was opposed by Mr.. Adesina of ICPC on the grounds that the applications were an abuse of court process because they were filed before the charges were served on them.

    The trial judge, Justice Adeniyi, while overruling the objection, granted their applications.

    “Percy Ndam was admitted to bail in the sum of N100 million with two sureties in like sum; Igbinedion N50 million with two sureties in like sum; and Nwedi N20 million with one surety in like sum.

    “The court said all the sureties must be resident in the FCT, swear to affidavit of service, and should not be below the rank of Assistant Director in the employment of the Federal Government or FCT or any of their agencies.”

    The matter was adjourned to October 31 and November for hearing.

  • NRMC, Alpha Mead sign MoU on affordable housing

    To improve access to affordable homes and deepen the  mortgage market, the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) and Alpha Mead Development Company (AMDC), a subsidiary of Alpha Mead Group, in Abuja, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

    The  deal will allow AMDC and NMRC to work together on housing finance, training, research, advisory and project structuring to increase the stock of affordable housing in the country.

    It will also provide and permit technical support and advice to Alpha Mead in the  residential part of the estate market.

    It will make it easier and faster for customers pre-qualified by AMDC to access mortgage from the member- financial institutions of the NMRC.

    NMRC Managing Director/CEO Prof. Charles Inyangete described the MoU as remarkable.

    He explained that the NMRC decided to partner Alpha Mead because of its innovative and technology-driven approach to increase affordable housing stock in Nigeria and to leverage its expertise in facilities management which he believes will come in handy to maintain the projects after construction.

    “The combination of these capacities that Alpha Mead bring to the partnership will give the market the assurance that property prices can be sustained, going forward; and we can all deliver to the specific needs of the customers,” he said.

    Besides, he said the mortgage refinance firm chose the partnership because of the desire to see the Alpha Mead model succeed.

    This, Inyangete said, is because of the firm’s believe that the model will allow for increased transactions in the housing development value chain and providing its member institutions with more projects to finance.

    The Group Managing Director of Alpha Mead, Femi Akintunde, expressed delight at the partnership, which he described as a great demonstration of NMRC’s commitment to reduce housing deficit; and recognised Alpha Mead’s innovative approach to delivering quality and affordable housing to Nigerians.

    “It is becoming obvious that the conventional building methods cannot bridge Nigerian housing gap, especially in the face of the myriad of challenges that face the affordable housing value chain. So, what we bring to the market are the possibilities of addressing the challenges of affordability and quality; which are two critical issues that are inhibiting the nation’s affordable housing market,” Akintunde said.

    He noted that the structure of the market makes is a tall order for people in the middle-income bracket to own homes because of the high entry barrier.

    He listed other challenges as lack of skilled artisans,  high cost of building materials, and lack of standardised building and quality processes, which all combine to have adverse effects on the quality of building in the market.

    “So, on the one hand, we are addressing the issue of quality by using technology that guarantees repeated quality, straight edges and structural integrity; and on the other hand, we are addressing the challenges of affordability by using our technology to achieve up to 15 per cent savings for our customers,” Akintunde explained.

  • Governors urged to partner cooperative societies in housing

    The continued shortage of affordable housing in the country remains a sore point for experts and other stakeholders in the built environment.

    The experts, like the Managing Director, M.I. Okoro and Associates, Mr. Meckson Okoro, have not ceased to wonder why, in a nation of over 180 million people, not up to 20 per cent of them can boast of owning their houses.

    Okoro, while presenting a paper at the housing scheme launch of the Perfection Co-operative Estate Phase 1, Ibeju-Lekki, noted that this is a sharp contrast to what obtains in other countries like Singapore and Cuba, among others, where house ownership is a secondary problem because up to 75 percent of such country’s population can boast of their own homes.

    The Perfection Investors Cooperative Society Limited is an independent membership real estate club in Lagos.

    At the event, which held in Lagos, Okoro blamed the  credit system for the housing challenge.

    “There is absence of mortgage system in Nigeria and the few ones existing have no financial muscle to finance real estate development because of the huge capital requirement of this form of investment. The commercial banks have limited capital to lend for real estate development. Where they have such fund to lend, it will be for a very high interest rate,” he lamented. He added that ignorance is another big problem affecting house ownership.

    “How many people know about cooperative societies as the vehicle to own their houses? Not many really, and even if they knew, ignorance will not allow them to take action. Therefore, the only way forward to owning your houses today since there are not solid mortgage institution to finance real estate is for people to join real estate cooperatives to secure their future to own houses and land. This is where cooperatives like Perfection Real Estate Investors Cooperative Society is of importance,” he said.

    Okoro, an estate surveyor and valuer, advised governors to partner cooperative societies to provide affordable mass housing for their citizens.“The government should work in tandem with cooperative societies because their activities impact the society,” he said, citing corruption, monetisation policy of government and the Land Use Act as some factors affecting real estate development in the nation.

    The guest lecturer/Managing Director Realty Point Limited, Mr. Debo Adejana, said investment in real estate was a gold mine being neglected by Nigerians due to ignorance. He said areas that have developed to become city centres were once remote areas people ran away from.

    He advised that investments into real estate should not be delayed because experience had shown that procrastination took away opportunities for people to either be land or house owners. “Don’t get trapped in the Nigerian real estate dilemma where the trap is not being able to afford what he wants and not wanting what he can afford. Buy land, invest in real estate before you wait, don’t wait to invest in real estate because prices would never go low,” Adejana advised.

    According to him, Ibeju Lekki in Lagos is the fastest growing construction hub in Africa today because people are building massively in the area and it is expected that by 2020 the hub will generate 50,000 jobs.

    Perfection Real Estate Investors Cooperative Society Limited President, Mr. Niyi Adeleye, noted that the economic situation and some policies of the government  depleted purchasing power in real estate.

    He said only about two per cent of Nigerians were investing in real estate, a situation he described as worrisome. “This also means that even when we talk about home ownership for the Nigerian, we are still very far behind,” he said.

    Adeleye said the cooperative society was inaugurated in 2012 to bridge the gap and give more Nigerians the opportunity to join the club to make small contributions towards home and land ownership.

  • Niger partners Italian firm on housing

    To provide affordable houses for residents, the Niger State

    Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an Italian firm, Italworks Nigeria Limited, for the construction of 1,000 housing units of two and three bedrooms.

    The project, to be executed under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, is valued at N8 billion. Already, more than 3,000 off-takers have bidded for the 1,000 units of the two and three bedrooms detached bungalows to be constructed.

    Niger State Housing Corporation General Manager Ahmed Abdullahi, at the MoU signing, said the government would provide 91 hectares of residential land along the Minna-Abuja express way in Paikoro Local Government area, while the Italian company, Italworks Nigeria Limited, would fund the project.

    According to him, Niger State is gradually becoming a haven for industrialists and civil servants, and the 1,000 housing units will reduce accommodation problem in the state.

    “This is part of the Governor Abubakar Sani Bello’s effort in providing affordable houses for Nigerlites. This project is one of the steps being taken by the state government to reduce the housing deficit in most towns in the state,” Abdullahi said.

    Italworks Managing Director, Mr. Gaetano Crisa, explained that the project will commence next month and it will have backward integration benefits as it is planned to create employment for thousands of youths in the state and enhance business opportunities, especially in the state’s building materials market sector.

    Crisa assured that his firm has executed 10 projects successfully in Nigeria, and that Italian engineers and architects would be brought in to ensure the construction of quality and affordable houses in record time as contained in the MoU.

  • FUTO alumni begin N220m housing project

    The Alumni Association, Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), at the weekend flagged off a N220 million housing project for members of staff of the institution.

    The project which would provide 20-unit houses will be completed within one year.

    Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony, President of the Association, Ndubuisi Chijioke, said the building project would gulp N220 million.

    He also said the staff quarters would have steady supply of electricity.

    ”The FUTO Alumni Association has decided to build 20 units apartments for the university staff quarters. It is going to be energy efficient for 24 hours, with batteries and inverters. This will cost the association about N220 million.”

    Chijioke, said the decision to build the apartments was driven by the feedback the Association got from the authorities of the institution on the immediate areas they could intervene, adding that the buildings would comprise of four-bedroom, three-bedroom semi -detached, among others.

    Also, two brilliant students with Cumulative Grade Point Averages (CGPA) of 4.0 in their 200-Level were offered scholarship by the Association.

    The President, presented the benefitting students with a cheque of N100,000.00 at a short ceremony held in the Senate Chambers.

    He disclosed that the students will continue to enjoy the gesture as long as they maintained 4.0 CGPA.  He added that the association also selected 20 graduates to undergo Graduate Training Internship Programme, to help both the unemployed and underemployed among them.

    Speaking, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Francis Eze, said the management, members of staff and students were delighted by the gestures of the Association.

    He commended the group for the initiative, adding that the new set of houses will go a long way to cushion the accommodation challenges faced by the staff of the university.

  • Affordable housing: private initiative to the rescue

    Affordable housing: private initiative to the rescue

    With growing population, a lingering housing deficit and government’s continued inability to provide affordable housing in practical sense, a multinational has seized the initiative to provide technical support, materials, and connect  mortgage providers with prospective house owners, among  others. MUYIWA LUCAS reports that the initiative is part of the firm’s global plan, which will benefit 25 million households, with Nigeria benefitting substantially. 

    It is not a new piece of information that Nigeria’s population is increasing geometrically. But several studies conducted by the United Nations on Nigeria’s population showed that come 2050, there will be 400 million people in Nigeria, is frightening. This projection means that the country would have overtaken the United States (US) in another 32 years from now, as the 3rd most populous country in the world.

    In similar vein, the World Bank projected that Nigeria’s population is growing at 2.8 per cent rate yearly, while her per urban population grows at 4.7 per cent as a result of the rise in rural-urban migration. This growth rate is, however, disproportional with staggered attempts at bridging the housing deficit by both the public and private sector in the country.

    To experts and other stakeholders in the real estate and construction industry, these studies represent a timely warning for the country’s built environment, especially with regards to providing affordable housing in a country where a deficit of 17 million housing exists. This fear may not be unfounded given that population explosion comes with an attendant need for housing. Stakeholders and policy makers have put Nigeria’s financial requirement to tackle the deficit at N59.5 trillion.

    A 2010 report commissioned by EFInA and Finmark Trust, titled: “Overview of Housing Finance Sector in Nigeria”, submitted that 85 per cent of the urban population live in rented accommodation, spending more than 40 per cent of their income on rent. Of these rented houses, 90 per cent are built through self financing by the owner, mainly due to lack of mortgage financing while less than five per cent of these houses have formal title registration.

    The lack of an efficient and effective mortgage financing has remained a huge albatross on the country, irrespective of the various government efforts in this direction. This is why only a tenth of the one million homes built yearly, has helped to tackle the deficit over a period of 10 years. Most of these, findings revealed, are by persons who contend with deficient financing, shoddy workmanship and poor building materials, among others.

    The low income category seem to be the most hit in Nigeria’s housing debacle. For a Nigerian aspiring to build an affordable home with about N3 million, there are enough challenges to induce headaches, which either frustrate the ambition or force the project to be abandoned. These include access to finance, which is the major source of worry; others are delays in project completion, taking between two to five years; lack of access to qualified building professionals without cut-throat charges as professional fee; mortgages focusing on the high end market; inconsistent quality of building materials; bureaucratic building approval process and the high cost of acquiring land and its tenure issues.

    A former Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi, acknowledged that affordable housing delivery for the low and middle income earners cannot be achieved without the provision of incentives to encourage private sector participation.

    “To build a house in Nigeria is a very expensive task due to the high cost of building materials. Affordable housing cannot, therefore, be achieved without a drastic reduction in the cost of housing construction and other associated costs, which invariably determine the selling price. Consequently, for affordability to thrive, emphasis must shift to reducing the cost of housing construction to promote access to affordable homes to the vulnerable segment of our national population,” Mrs Eyakenyihad said at a pre-summit meeting on the Nigeria housing and construction summit/expo, in 2014.

    She then called on the organised private sector, manufacturing outfits, finance houses and multilateral agencies to support the drive for affordable housing delivery.

    Eyakenyi’s call has not fallen on deaf ears, as the private sector has taken up the challenge of housing in the country. This has again made for a silver lining to appear on the horizon for Nigerians desirous of owning their affordable houses.

    For instance, Lafarge Africa has put in place an initiative, which it calls “Easy Home”, an innovative affordable housing initiative, which is already providing innovative solutions for the construction, renovation and extension of houses. The scheme is tailored to the local challenges and needs of individual home builders, including Nigerians, who already own their land and want to build. Through the initiative, LafargeHolcim Group, hopes to impact about 25 million people by 2020 and Nigeria is expected to benefit from a significant chunk of the scheme.

    Lafarge Africa Head of Affordable Housing initiative, Mr. Aurelien Boyer, explained that if the associated challenges to affordable house ownership are addressed, Nigerians could build more houses faster. This, he said, was what the firm set out to do with the Easy Home scheme. “The whole idea is to provide individuals with free technical expertise and demystify the idea of owning a home. Lafarge Africa provides free cost estimate i.e. Bill of Quantity and designs for prospective builders. We also connect them with sources of finance as well as artisans that will build at the least possible cost without compromising quality,” Boyer explained.

    The Easy Home initiative, which began three years ago, has impacted positively on over 30,000 persons across 14 states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Kwara, Ondo, Benin, Osun, Nasarawa, Niger, Cross River, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Abuja. Beneficiaries of the scheme include Business people, civil servants and salary earners, who have used “Easy Home’s” menu of free services to build bungalows, duplexes, self-contained apartments, shops, schools, clinics etc.

    “The demand for housing outstrips supply in the low-income segment where most live in rented houses. Presently, 5,000 households in mainly urban and peri-urban households earning N20,000 to N300,000 monthly have keyed into the Easy Home scheme. We, as Lafarge, estimates that nine million households can afford to build their property incrementally. Through Easy Home, Lafarge Africa is contributing to the reduction of the national housing deficit and helping to accommodate a large chunk of Nigeria’s population,” Boyer explained.

    A consultant architect with a leading construction firm, Mr. Richard Ibilola, has praised the initiative. Easy Home, he said, will have a very significant and positive impact on the spread of good construction practices and the deepen building and construction supervision skills in Nigeria. For him, EasyHome will make it easier for Nigerians to step on the home acquisition ladder because it is designed to take significant initial costs burden away from house owners, and at the same time boosts the development of skills in the ecosystem.

    A financial analyst with vast experience in mortgage matters, Mr. Kayode Oyedele, who explained that given the format of the initiative and having had a first hand experience of the scheme as a financial advisor to some beneficiaries, praised the initiators of the scheme. According to him, it is a delight that the Easy Home scheme is changing the perception of mortgage financing and affordable housing schemes in the country.

    “This should be encouraged. More programmes like this will happen in Nigeria only when there’s a mortgage system, which allows for the repayment of loans to acquire houses spread over 15-25 years. Such will give developers and banks an incentive to develop massive residential projects. Regulators will also find it much easier to monitor and punish builders responsible for defects,”Oyedele said.

    To many of its beneficiaries, Easy Home is a huge relief. A pharmacist, Mrs.Ejiro Foyinbo, extolled the concept. She said the provision of free technical assistance, links to trusted builders, reliable retailers and qualified artisans, which the scheme afforded her, has helped to maximise her budget.

    But this is not Lafarge Africa’sfirst intervention in affordable housing programmes. The firm, in collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD) and LAPO microfinance, have long invested N1.3 billion to provide affordable housing in the country under its “Ile Irorun” affordable housing initiative, which started in October 2013. It was the firm’s first operation launched in the frame of AFD and Lafarge partnership to improve housing conditions through microfinance in Africa.

    The “Ile Irorun”, was intended to enable low-income families to finance the construction, extension or the renovation of their houses and thereby help them improve their living conditions. In all, an estimated 3,500 Nigerians are expected to have benefitted from the programme by end of this year.

    In 2015, Lafarge Holcim also unveiled a self-contained studio-flat at its Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos office, as a model for affordable housing for the low and middle income earners. The feat served as the bedrock for the firm’s planned delivery of a 500-unit of low cost housing in Gwagwalada, Abuja. The types being provided in this scheme include two and three-bedroom flats and studio types. Its prices range from N1.5million for studio model, while others are between N4million and N6million.

    Stakeholders are convinced that the initiative is capable of bringing succour to the numerous Nigerians, who are daily losing hope of owning houses.

  • CBN to de-risk housing finance under ‘My Own Home’

    A scheme aimed at inspiring  the younger generation of Nigerians to key into mortgage process, immediately after  they begin work or business, has been initiated. The scheme will also give fresh hope to more Nigerians to own homes with ease.

    This is coming with the commencement of the Federal Government’s housing initiative tagged: ‘My Own Home.’

    The scheme is an offshoot of the Nigeria Housing Finance Programme (NHFP) being implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the support of World Bank’s $300 million loan, on behalf of the Federal Government.

    It is hinged on the government’s plans to introduce a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative aimed at increasing access to housing finance through mortgage guarantee insurance and microfinance scheme.

    Explaining the modus operandi of the scheme, CBN’s Head, Project Administration Team of the NHFP, Mr. Adedeji Adesemoye, said the objective of the scheme is to catalyse the growth of the housing sector through de-risking the housing finance value chain and improving access to finance.

    “We need to educate our people that owning a home with a mixture of equity and debt is not a negative thing; having a home that you will live in the next 50 years does not require you to spend all your life savings,” explained Adesemoye.

    To this end, eight micro finance banks (MFB) have been selected to mobilise housing finance for low-income earners in the formal and informal sectors of the economy. The eight MFB are expected to facilitate access to flexible housing finance for low-income earners for incremental construction or home improvement. This, Adesemoye further explained, could either be financing to buy a piece of land for building or laying foundation on an existing land and commencement of building stage by stage.

    “After every stage of building, and with a good history of repayment, the microfinance bank keeps financing the customer until the building is completed. This housing microfinance is not for the purchase of homes. This scheme is similar to our traditional sense of incremental construction. This initiative will make it possible for a homeowner to stretch his building plan in such a way that he takes different tranches of loan as he builds,” Adesemoye explained.

    To execute this task, the selected MFB will benefit from a $15 million technical assistance from the World Bank’s $300 million housing loan. LAPO Microfinance Bank is already being used as a pilot for the scheme based on its antecedent in the mortgage sector.

    Adesemoye, who spoke with The Nation Property in Lagos, disclosed that the CBN is already in partnership with the Frankfurt School of Management and AFC Consultants International, Germany for technical assistance.

    Through NHFP, government is creating the enabling environment for strengthening the nation’s housing sector by setting up sustainable framework by mortgage originators to access long-term refinancing. The new scheme is expected to scale up mortgage and housing finance awareness.

  • Jubilee housing scheme: PPP to the rescue

    •Brains & Hammers bankrolls project

    Determined to continue with its housing initiative, but faced with scarce financial resources, the Lagos State Government has embraced the public-private partnership (PPP) alternative to bring the scheme to fruition.

    To this end, the state government, earlier in the week, finalised agreement with a development firm, Messers Brains & Hammers Limited, for the development of the 618 housing units at the Jubilee Estate in Iganmu. The project is designed to drive urban redevelopment in the area which will engender increased property values in the surrounding environment, thereby re-positioning the current site to one  highly sought after.

    Going by the cosmopolitan nature of Iganmu, the Jubille Housing Estate is estimated to create 3,590 direct jobs and about 7,000 indirect jobs in the area. Iganmu is dominated predominantly by the informal sector operators such as artisans, labourers, traders and food vendors.

    The estate, upon completion, will house 96 units of two-bedroom flats; 414 units of three-bedroom flats and 108 units of four-bedroom terrace houses. In addition to adequate parking facilities and excellent infrastructure, the development will include a well-equipped club house with a swimming pool, recreational areas and landscaping.

    Following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the development of the estate will begin next month, with a projected duration of 60 months from the receipt of all required approvals and permits.

    The Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Gbolahan Lawal, at the signing of the  MoU with Messrs Brains and Hammers Limited in his Alausa office, Ikeja, explained that the initiative, which was mooted by the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode as part of activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of the state, will stand as a symbol of the celebration for many decades to come.

    Lawal disclosed that the housing deficit in the state stands at over three million. Therefore, he further explained, in order to bridge this gap, about 200,000 housing units must be delivered annually in the next five years. This requirement, he emphasised, cannot be delivered alone by the government; hence the need to inject private capital into housing delivery. To achieve this purpose, the state government has made land available to prospective private developers who have exhibited technical and financial capabilities for the delivery of affordable housing units.

    “The Jubilee Estate project is a PPP between the Lagos State Government, represented by the Ministry of Housing and IBILE Holdings Limited on one hand and Brains & Hammers, one of the foremost housing developers in the country on the other hand. The state stands to derive significant internally generated revenue through the taxes that will accrue from the sale of housing units and will also benefit from Land Use Charge and other statutory payments for property,” Lawal explained.

    The Chief Operating Officer of Brains & Hammers, Mr. Ibrahim Wushishi, explained that while the firm will be leveraging on the latest construction technology to deliver the project, he nonetheless expects challenges. “The potential challenges with the site are two-fold. Firstly, the terrain is challenging for construction but over the years Brains and Hammers has developed the skill and competence required to provide quality construction regardless of terrain. We are leveraging on the best available technology in the form of vibro-flotation which will be used to stabilise the soil and prepare it to take large structures safely and securely. The second challenge we envision is being able to keep up with demand for the housing units. Due to the strategic location, we have been inundated with demand. As we are only able to build a total of 618 housing units currently, we are saddled with the limited supply and very heavy demand,” he explained, adding that the firm will be working with Lafarge Africa, who are recognised as the largest producers of building materials globally, including working with some of the proprietary technology in the form of specialised and customised concrete

    He revealed that the estate will be serviced by a stand-alone sewage treatment system that will have the required capacity and functionality to meet the needs of the estate in an environmentally-friendly manner, without recourse to other facilities in the area. Similarly, there is a plan to provide an integrated power system for the estate. This encompasses dedicated electricity supply from the local power provider and on-site power generation which will be augmented by a solar-powered solution. Wushishi said this will ensure value for money for residents and ensure carbon emissions are kept to a minimum in line with the new order of climate change.

    While Lawal signed for the state government, Messrs Adebola Sheidu, chairman of Brains and Hammers and Abubakar Sheidu, company secretary, witnessed for the company.