Building, Construction Sector Can Boost Employment – Surveyor

The building and con
struction sector can  generate employment on a massive scale within the economy, the President of Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (QRSBN) Malam Husaini Dikko,  has said.
Dikko made the statement in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, saying the board was determined to reposition the sector to be among the highest employers of labour.
“In this era of rising unemployment, the building and construction sector can be used to generate employment on a massive scale within the economy.
“The building and construction sector can be used to drive economic growth and development within a given national economy.
“The sector can play a key role in setting agenda for national economic development in Nigeria,” he said.
Dikko said housing had always been a major challenge in Nigeria but that its ownership was beyond the income of a good number of citizens, who lived below poverty line.
According to him, reliance on interplay of market forces will not be helpful in resolving the problems of access to home ownership in Nigeria.
He said that intervention could come in form of subsidy and safety nets to the segment of the citizenry, who were  most vulnerable to deprivation of access to home ownership.
“A master plan that will consider the multi-faceted ramifications and various perspectives to home ownership is required; these perspectives may impel a Public-Public Partnership (PPP).
“The PPP is a private sector initiative with government production, fiscal policy and monetary policy driven initiatives and a combination of fiscal monetary policies.
“There should be a fiscal policy regime that will crash the prices of cement and other major building materials to not more than 40 per cent of their current market prices.
“This will be a good start, “ he said.
The president said provision of housing for the low-income and even to the no-income citizens of Nigeria should be the direct social responsibility of government because they were most vulnerable.
He stated that QSRBN was developing a construction Cost Data Base (CDB) that would assist government and private sector in the costing and quality cost management of housing projects.
Dikko said CDB would ensure value for money and efficient management of national resources allocated to the housing sector.