Housing Dev: Ex-Gov Makes Case For Insurance Sector

Former Governor Wants Insurance Sector Strenghtened to Fund Housing Estates Former Governor of Cross River State State Donald Duke has called for the strengthening of the insurance sector to enable it provide long-term funding pool for housing development in the country.
Duke told newsmen in Enugu  that a robust and well-regulated insurance sector would stimulate the economy through job creation in the housing sector.
He noted that the country had housing shortage of about 20 million.
He said that insurance and the application of pension funds in particular, safe sectors such as low and middle level housing, would curtail the country’s housing deficit.
“This portends a huge opportunity to stimulate employment and manufacturing in the housing industry,” he said.
According to him, following the affordable and low-cost housing development methods of the Nigerian Navy, the country, within years, can create a lot of jobs and meet housing needs of citizens.
He said that two million housing units in new towns, using alternate building methods as the Nigerian Navy had done in Calabar, could create as much as 10 million and 15 million skilled and unskilled jobs.
“The Nigerian Navy in Calabar developed a very decent housing estate of 100 units in six months with each unit under N2 million.
“The efforts should be replicated on a national scale to bridge the 20 million housing shortage,” he said.