Group Advocates Housing Sector Reforms

The Rivers Coopera
    tive Communication, Transport and Investment  Association (RCCTIA), has urged the federal and the state government to introduce  a reform in the housing sector that would ensure adequate provision of houses for low-income earners.
President of the association, Mr. Abel Echionwu, who disclosed this  while  speaking with The Tide in Port Harcourt, Monday, noted that real attention  Monday, noted that real attention has not been given to the high demand  in houses, especially at the low-income  group level.
He said that some agencies  of government both at the  federal level such as  the Federal Housing Authority  had for  about 16 years now sourced  funds  through banks and pre-sales subscriptions to build houses, but that government had  not really shown keen interest on it.
Echionwu  stated that houses built by the Federal Housing  Authority (FHA) should be affordable to low-income earners and appealed to the Federal Government to enhance the efficiency of  the authorities in the sector for housing delivery.
He regretted  however that efforts made by many estate developers in housing provision were focused  at the high income earners in the urban centres.
According to him, an assessment  made on the activities of the Rivers State Housing and Property Development  Authority (RSHPDA) has shown that the authority has not  really delivered on its mandate, as they still battle on how to secure mortgage  fund to  tackle housing development.
The cooperative president also said  that many civil servants have not benefited from the contributions to the national housing fund domiciled at the Federal  Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
He, therefore  urged  government to evolve policy that will make mortgage  funds available to  developers to  accelerate  housing delivery.