L-R: Director of Public Affairs, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Osita Nwajah, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr Abubakar Magaji and the acting EFCC chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, during the EFCC interactive session with staff of the works and housing sectors in Abuja recently.

The Nigerian institute
of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), has called on the government to look into housing reforms.
The newly elected second Vice President of the Institute, Mr Emma Okas Wike, made the call shortly after his return from the institute’s 46th Annual General Meeting, which held at Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Wike said the issue of affordable houses was an integral part of discussions at the meeting and charged the government to consider reforms in the housing sector.
He noted that a reform in the housing programmes of the government, would make houses affordable to the masses, which he said would also reduce the number of slump dwellers, thereby reducing the health hazards to humans.
According to him, “there is the need for government to address the dearth of housing for the masses, especially civil servants in the state. Every worker looks up to his employer for some sort of relief in difficult situations like the issue of providing affordable housing.”
He reasoned that if an employee is comfortable, he would be more efficient and more productive and his employer would be the better for it.
He said, “if a worker is comfortably housed, he has no worries of his house rent expiring and his landlord troubling him, so if his mind is at rest he would surely discharge his duties diligently and be more profitable to his employer.”
While commending the Rivers State governor on his infrastructural developmental strides, the NIESV chief urged him to do same for housing and speed up the Iriebe Housing Estate project as well as consider its affordability by the masses.