Witness narrates how Ex-HoS, allies diverted public funds to private companies in court
Lack of good policies affects housing scheme – Prof. Fagbenle
By Rasaq Adebayo
Insufficient government policies has been identified as the major impediment to adequate housing scheme in the country.
This was disclosed by a Professor of Building (Construction and Material Management), Department of Building Technology, College of Science and Technology, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Olabosipo Fagbenle while delivering the 24th inaugural lecture of the university with the theme: ‘Affordable and Sustainable Housing: A Practical Approach to Total Building Construction,’ recently.
He said with a population of 7,844,331,354, the world’s population is increasing at a rate of about 1.05 percent per year in which Africa is the second largest continent with a population of 1,340, 598,147 while Nigeria is projected as the seventh most populated country in the globe with a population of 209, 357,244 as at 7th February, 2021.
The estimated increase of the current average population according to him is about 81 million people per year and there is, therefore, a need to provide shelter to this teeming population.
He however said government policy in Nigeria has not sufficiently addressed the issue of quantitative and qualitative demand for housing in cities.
“Consequently, this challenge forces poor people to settle in urban periphery that are injurious to their health and well-being.
“In addition, inadequate policy from the government affects sustainable housing delivery thereby leading to high rent, overcrowding and poor living conditions.
“More recent housing policies formulated by government had not yielded visible positive effects on the lives of the poor despite the huge funds invested on housing,” Fagbenle said.
The lecturer said that the concept of sustainability and affordability needed to be adequately explained in policy formulation to realistically achieve efficient housing production delivery.
He said investigations have shown that governments at the three-tiers do not have adequate policies on land for affordable housing delivery, therefore, poor people who are the largest percentage of the population cannot afford the high price tag on land and are forced to settle in slums.
Fagbenle stressed the need for the three-tiers of government to have adequate policies on land for affordable housing delivery so that poor people who are largest population could afford price tag on land.
He also identified land acquisition, materials procurement and construction process as major problem confronting the quest for affordable and sustainable housing in the country.
The don advised the Federal Government to provide housing finance and encourage collective savings to handle long-term housing loans with quality, fairness and accountability.
He also emphasized the need for the government to promote an on all-inclusive participation through active involvement of civil society, especially through the efforts of housing users’ organisations, such as low-income earners’ Organisations and community-based Organisations.
He added that government could also help by offering land as an option to developers working on low and medium-cost housing projects under social concession contracts to reduce disagreement and conflicts on land.
Urging government to encourage local content initiatives, Fagbenle said researchers should be encouraged to develop local building materials as alternatives to the foreign contents.
This he said could be carried out by sponsoring research and developments in all ramifications and legislating compulsory patronage of local materials by the populace through ban on importation of foreign building materials as it is the case with some food commodities.
He also advised on the need to create a government body directly charged with the coordination of all stakeholders and well empowered in all ramifications.
“This body will be charged with the responsibility of fostering relationships among the stakeholders in the provision of sustainable and affordable housing,” he explained.
Other functions of the body according to him will include, to ensure that the laws governing stakeholders are favourable for their efficient functionality; enabling stakeholders to execute affordable housing projects collectively; ensure that stakeholders are motivated through various incentives; monitoring and evaluating all affordable projects.
The lecturer also recommended the establishment of construction gardens in each of the nation’s tertiary institutions.
He stated that a cursory look at the nation’s tertiary institutions revealed that no place is set aside for practical demonstrations outside their workshops and laboratories.
“This current practice has no doubt hampered practical development in most of these institutions which in turn negatively affects the products being turned out for employment in the construction sector.
“With this, structures can be erected using alternative local materials as replacement for foreign ones and their structural stability tested over a long period of time.”
He also said other local initiatives could also be developed by students and their instructors through this avenue.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice-Chancellor of Covenant University, Prof. Abiodun Adebayo, said that most new housing production were targeted at upper income households, and consequently middle and lower income families are experiencing housing shortage.
“The resulting effects of this is inadequate infrastructure, increasing poverty, hopelessness, rising social vices and human degradation.”
The Vice-Chancellor said that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Industry experts have estimated the current housing deficit in the country to be in the range of 17 to 23 million.
Adebayo said that there had been significant increase in population, especially in the rural areas of the country without an equivalent rise in the number of new housing units.
