Expert Urges Funding Of Housing Dev Agencies

An Estate Surveyor
has called for financial assistance to agencies responsible for housing development in Nigeria.
One-time State Chairman, Nigeria Association of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Mr Emma Wike, who made the  call in an interview at the  weekend said the call became necessary due to bottlenecks faced in the course of getting approval for building plans.
Wike said, many developers  have boycotted some inspections  and documentations necessary  for a building  plan to be approved, saying that some developers   do not  adhere to government approved plans and specifications before a building is put up.
“Many developers no longer respect building laws and codes when building.
“For instance, a building boundary should be at least six meters from the road and three meters from the  surrounding fence, but  these days  you find that even the fence  forms part of the building wall,” he said.
He further said developers only obey these codes and regulations on paper but on getting to site, they do something else.
He observed  that a contributing factor to heavy  traffic on  the roads was due to lack of parking  spaces for over 60 per cent of  residential and official  buildings.
He challenged town planners to insist on inspecting building sites before and after building  plans have been approved to ensure conformity.
He claimed that often times there were no vehicles and other working  facilities to enhance the job of inspections  and enjoined government to  come to  the aid of developers to  avoid  their buildings being demolished.

Tonye Nria-Dappa