By ABUBAKAR YUSUF.
In Nigeria of today , even after the creation of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led administration, the official provider of houses by government remained the Federal Housing Authority FHA.
The quest for expansion of the scope of job and assignment given the desire by both government and the private sector to bridge the gap of housing deficit in Nigeria, also led to the creation of the new Ministry.
Envisaging the protracted nosediving state of the world economies, with Nigeria not in exception , the dire need to provide and expand the institution charged with provision of more houses to Nigerians at affordable and accessible rate was responsible to the establishment of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Globally, government agencies charged with provision of houses both in mortgage and under the National Housing arrangements, just like it is applicable in Nigeria with the National Housing Fund NHF , an assess to the public workers towards realizing their quest for affordable shelter, the development, expansion and sustenance of the agency’s charged with such enormous responsibility cannot be over emphasized, hence the intentions of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not only prioritizing provision of houses by agency’s like FHA, but expanded it’s scope by creating a separate Ministry as replicated in Lagos between 1999-2003, when he ruled the state and sustained for over two decades after he left office.
President Tinubu desire to drive home his Renewed Hope Agenda towards the provision of quality and affordable houses also went beyond the creation of the new Ministry, but appointed two Ministers to man the area , so as to consolidate, synergise and drive the agenda of provision of Renewed Hope estates across the length and breath of the country, beyond mere rhetorics and political considerations.
With high cost of building materials and top roof demand for other professional, management and technical requirements towards achieving housing for all in the current renewed hope agenda, the engagement of both public and organized private sector driven template became sacrosanct.
Armed with many decades of experience in both the bureaucratic and technocratic area, that had contributed greatly to the reformation of the moribund Federal Housing Authority FHA under Senator Gbenga Ashafa three years down the line, no doubt the choice of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu both at the agency level and policy making level will be a veritable tool to spring more development in the area of Housing and shelter beyond mere policy statements and inactions.
The ongoing reforms in FHA is beyond mere pronouncements of thousands of Housing estate being contemplated alone, as it was obvious particularly in the commencement and completion of Zuba Housing Estate that was oversubscribed, the near completion of Bwari Housing estate already been subscribed within the special waiver of intervention fund, and with no subvention over the years.
The need for more policy actions and funding of FHA as the leading shelter provider and flagship of the private sector participation in the area of construction, regulation and management, as the new leadership desire for more collaborations that will reduce to the barest minimum the unabated housing problems across all strata not minding your status and stature.
The most critical areas that requires urgent attention ranges from the need to grow more mortgages, NHF subscribers and the expansion of the newly embarked ‘Rent to Own’ arrangements that had become a newly adopted template in the FHA program.
With global acceptance and excitement of the ‘Rent to Own’ arrangement, and also the digitization process embarked upon by FHA, no doubt in the shortest possible time, the targeted houses expected to be built per annum will not only be achieved, but beyond the expectations.
The new Ministry of Housing and Urban Development created as the hub of it’s agencies like FHA, will be expected to map out strategies that will guarantee adequate funding, brisk amendment to the outdated act establishing it , and not relying on the existing law to ostracize and extricate it of it’s main functions.
For FHA, the enabling environment with highly qualified managerial, technical and administrative staff already on ground, the needed supports will be desiring to hit the ground running, towards a modest and modern template been initiated by the Ashafa led FHA.
What is required of the Ministry as part of it’s policy thrust is to provide required and needed supports to the Federal Housing Authority FHA, so as to herald not only a new order, but revolution that will reduce the scourge of housing deficit to ordinary Nigerians.
FHA bedeviled with paucity of funds, owing to non subvention, obsolete laws, will be needing supports for payment and offsetting of compensation, maintainance, reclamation and also construction of it’s existing sites across the country.
Leaving out the FHA out of the new order as the driver of the quest for adequate provision of houses in the last five decades to ordinary Nigerians, will not only be a disservice to the populace , but a denial of access to quality and affordable houses for all in the current dispensation.
Yusuf Writes from Abuja on yus.abubakar3@gmail.com.
