Experts have advised incoming administrations at federal and state levels to pay greater attention to housing as a Experts have advised incoming administrations at federal and state levels to pay greater attention to housing as a poverty alleviation tool in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer, Eximia Realty Company Limited, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran, said housing, as one of the economic variables, could be deployed to lift people out of poverty in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer, Eximia Realty Company Limited, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran, said housing, as one of the economic variables, could be deployed to lift people out of poverty.
He observed that leaders need political will and policy shift by rethinking the underpinning philosophy of housing as a right and social good, adding that government policy must differentiate between affordable and social housing.
Ogunniran stated this at the 17th yearly leadership seminar tagged, “Closing the Poverty Gap through Housing: Issues, Challenges and Solutions” organised by Harvest Fields International Church, Lagos.
He said: “Housing constitutes an important part of people’s living conditions and makes a contribution to their life chances. The significance of the links between housing and poverty, and material deprivation deserves greater attention. The interaction between the two can have a big effect on the numbers of those defined as ‘living in poverty’, who they are and the implications for policy.”
According to him, the sector needs direct intervention from government by creating institutions that will deliver low-cost and social housing for the people.
He said the government should create policies to drive social and housing benefits that will subsidise cost of housing and partner with the private sector to create a collaborative platform to deliver houses at affordable prices.
“We need to build a coalition of critical participants in the housing value-chain such as the government, landowners, financiers, developers and off-takers. Government should create a solution that straddles the demand and supply side of the housing ecosystem.
“Government needs to work on an enabling environment that will help people to deliver housing. We must commodities housing, start to buy and sell houses the same way we buy and sell other commodities. We have to industrialise the process of housing delivery.
“Today, we are still building houses but we have to start manufacturing houses and standardise the processes to deliver houses in large numbers, lower the prices and make housing more affordable to the people,” Ogunniran said.
He said the incoming government needs to understand why the previous attempt to improve housing has not worked and create a policy that addresses issues of housing demand and supply.
The former managing director of UAC property development company said: “ Housing has become more of a poverty aggravation tool, the new government has to change that narrative and convert housing to poverty amelioration instrument.
“We have a National Housing Policy, particularly the 2011 policy, which touched on every element of housing to make it more affordable and accessible but the government decided to implement the easiest part of the policy, which was on housing finance by creating the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC). We need a policy that will enhance mortgage creation and before you create mortgages, you have to build the houses.”
He called for special a window to secure building approvals, wavers for building material import and land provision at concessionary rate. He added that the Land Use Act of 1978, whose provisions, he said, needed review would make land accessible for housing.
Ogunniran challenged churches and other faith-based organisations to go beyond competing for building large auditoriums, but convert lands to building affordable housing for their members.
The General Overseer of the church, Reverend Akinola Abraham, lamented that some institutions in Nigeria like schools and other projects have not been well managed since the military regime to the present civilian administration.
He urged Christians to rise up to the occasion and restore the lost glory of the country as God has great interest in Nigeria.
Abraham charged christians to make an impact in the real estate sector and other fields of endeavor, as well as imbibe the culture of excellence in all activities.

The Managing Director of Kemsan Acres Global Limited, Mr. Oluwaseun Owoseni, has called for support from government at all levels toward tackling the problem of housing deficit in Nigeria.
Owoseni stated this during the company’s activities to mark its fourth anniversary celebration in Ibadan. The company, a real estate firm, had distributed food and clothing to no fewer than 500 less privileged as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
He said the real estate industry was an important sector in Nigeria that needed government attention. “The real estate industry is a sector that the government at all levels should look into. We have the problem of housing deficit in Nigeria.
“We are appealing to the government to provide enabling environment for real estate industry to thrive in the country. We need the basic social amenities such as good road networks and stable power supply,” he said.
Owoseni urged the people to trust the company in terms of integrity, genuineness and transparency, saying the CSR was a way of giving back to the society.
He said that the company had in the last four years, been converting rural areas to habitable urban settlement.
“We believe that if one gives to the society, the person would get back from the society. What has brought us this far is what we have received from the society. We believe that the basic need of everyone is food, clothing and shelter.
“As real estate firm, we provide shelter and we are here today to give food and clothes. We are reaching out to over 500 persons,” he said.
Owoseni explained further that the firm would launch Abuja branch this week, stating that they have branches in Ibadan, Ado-Ekiti, Akure and Abeokuta.
“One of the major challenges of the real estate industry is that the people believe that it is a scam. Our company sells real value of people’s money. It is actually a big challenge for us in the industry because people believe that real estate firms allocate on paper without getting the value of their money,” he said.
The Chairman of the planning committee for the fourth anniversary, Mr. Faith Oyebanji, said the firm’s achievements have been massive, as it provided accommodation for over 20,000 residents in Ibadan.
He said that the company had been establishing strong relationships with governments in every state they have branches. “We have experienced tremendous improvements in our services in the last four years. We started so little but our tentacle has been extended to both Nigeria and abroad.
“We have been able to provide accommodation for over 20, 000 residents in Ibadan. We don’t defraud people as we give 26/36 months planning payment for people,” he said.
“We have been associating with the state governments of where we have our branches. We can’t do without them,” he said.
An actor and ambassador of the company, Mr. Kolawole Ajeyemi, said he accepted the offer to be the brand ambassador of the firm because he knew Owoseni and trusted him.
“I don’t want to tarnish my own image. I don’t involve in anything fraudulent and I have been working with them for a year. I remain committed to the brand and I advise them to maintain their integrity,” he said.

Operatives of the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KASUPDA) have allegedly demolished six structures across the state capital and environs belonging to followers of Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky known as Shi’ites.
Leaders of the Shi’ites said the six structures were demolished in Kaduna yesterday morning .
At a press conference in Kaduna on yesterday, they said the structures demolished included schools, hospital and a private residence, among others .
They said Governor Nasir El-Rufai was pushing the Movement to the wall, by demolishing their structures.
In a leaked memo, KASUPDA sought the approval of Governor El-Rufai to carry out pending demolition of structures across the state, including 48 structures belonging to the Zakzaky-led Islamic Movement.
However, the agency had in the early hours yesterday carried out the demolition of six of the Shi’ites structures in Kawo, Rigasa, Tudun Wada and Ungwan Rimi, using security personnel to chase out the occupants of the buildings.
A Shi’ites leader; Engr Yunusa Lawal, said at the press conference that the demolition of their structures worth tens of millions was not only illegal, but vindictive, as the only reason given by the government was that their Movement was banned.
He said that, the Islamic Movement was not served any notice of demolition from Kaduna State Government or any of its agencies.
“We were never served any notice to know the reason for the demolition, so we don’t even know the location of the remaining 42 structures they planned to demolish. The only reason we saw in the leaked memo is that, we are a proscribed movement, but we are saying we are a religious community, we cannot be banned.”
“El-Rufai is pushing us to the wall, we are law abiding citizens, but there is a limit to everything. We cannot fold our arms, we must talk. We are bona fide citizens of Nigeria; even El-Rufai is not a better citizen than us. He’s bastardising everything, but we will continue to be law abiding citizens.”
“So, we are calling on the government and the people of good conscience to prevail on the government of El-Rufai to stop this thing they have started, because they said 48 structures, now six of our structures are down, we don’t know the 42 others across the state.”
“If care is not taken, that means there will be more bloodshed because some people might react to what the government is doing. Even yesterday, people would have reacted if they knew they (KASUPDA) were coming, because I can sense if people in Rigasa knew yesterday that this thing was going to happen today, we wouldn’t have been having this press conference today, because Kaduna would have been in turmoil.”
“To be frank with you, we have had enough. Enough is enough. Since 2015 to date, there is no month they will not kill at least some of our members either in Kaduna or Abuja and in some other parts of the Country, Kano, Sokoto and all that,” he alleged.