‘Why many Northerners don’t like block of flats’
Malam Sanusi Muhammad Inuwa is the Managing Director of Cowries Alliance, a real estate firm based in Abuja. In this interview, he speaks on the property sector.
The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria is a major financier of projects. How can developers build affordable houses via loans from the FMBN?
I would like to say that the present composition of members of board of FMBN is now more vibrant and has a political will to develop houses in Nigeria. One it has the passion to develop more houses in Abuja. I personally met with the Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank recently Ahmed Dangiwa, he personally interacted with us as a company that he met about 91 estates uncompleted which is on the high side, and that the estates - some are 75 percent completed, some are 50 percent completed and even some are 25 percent completed when they have collected over 70 -80 percent of the amount of the contract. So he embarked on reconstitution and correcting the past, he called on the estate developers especially those that have reached 70-75 percent stage completion and he is supporting them now to complete their projects so that he would fund it and buy it from them which is a welcomed development and serves as a support for the developers.
Secondly, he is taking the second phase now for those who have 50 percent or above 40; he is also trying to support them. Then he was emphasizing over the people who collected over 70, 80 or 90 percent of the contract sum, and they are 20 percent into the completion of the projects that they are the problems and they don’t have any intention to execute the contract, so he is trying to recover the government’s money from them, that’s why I said that he has a political will to fight corruption in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s government war against corruption.
The Federal Ministry of Housing is said to be embarking on mass housing scheme on all the six geo-political zones, that they want to localize the housing projects, to be in line
with the needs and lifestyle of the people. What’s your take on this?
To be honest with Federal Ministry of Housing, especially the Minister of State, Mustapha Shehuri, he is hardworking and focused. He has carried developers along the line. Because right now every geopolitical zone as he said, they are embarking on mass and affordable housing, and they have been working hard in ensuring that all abandoned projects are completed. Also contractors and developers are working hard to make sure they meet up to the deadline given to them by the Ministry of Housing.
The Ministry of Housing said too they want the houses to be in line with the lifestyle of the people in the six geo-political zones. Just as the houses differ from the ones in the south so also the one from the northern part of Nigeria, taking in mind their culture, religion and even family. So, what is your take on this?
We are focusing and building in line with the culture of everybody in the six geopolitical zones, take for instance now Sokoto, they are building 2-3 bedroom flats for bachelors and even people who have large families and most of the houses are completed and about to be completed, likewise in Jigawa that’s in the north-west , also in the north-east they are trying their very best in line with the types of family demands.
Then south-south like Cross River they are also building in line with the culture, their demand and their lifestyle and the way they raise up their families. Also in the south -west like Lagos, Oyo State they are also trying in building houses in line with the type of families they are having or occupants of these areas. So Federal Ministry of Housing is doing their very best in that direction, in the sense that they are building with the cultures of these people.
But I want them to get indigenous developers like us involved. They should ensure those genuine developers who have lands and ability to deliver are engaged because the biggest problem we are all having as developers is land, land is costly and it is not mostly available. For instance the state governments want to administrate on land issues as well as other land administrators are not helping matters. So they should analyse people who have land at hand like us and any other developers so that they can utilize the land just as they are doing in PPP, then monitor it and make sure it was done in line with the culture and inhabitants of each area. Like now we have a land in Sokoto about six hectares, 20 hectares in Jigawa and over 45 hectares here in Abuja, then we have 166 hectares of land in Cross River that is Calabar. So, if they can give bond to a developer, a developer can source for money from his financier so that they can build the houses in line with Federal Ministry of Housing and the requirements needed.
As a developer, which housing unit would be more appealing to the people of the northern part of the country?
The mode and culture of building that would be more appealing and acceptable to the people of the northern part of Nigeria are bungalows because of the number of children they give birth to, more than their counterparts in the south, therefore if you construct a prototype of the flats and the economy is more conducive here in the north than in the south. So if you construct a terrace, duplexes for the people here in the north, it would be more difficult to sell them but if you have a bungalows of 2, 3,4 flats or a single flat, it’s going to be accessible and sellable to the people of the north.
Blocks of flats are not ideal in the north?
Since there is available land, issues of blocks of flats is not advisable there in the north and majority of them do not really like blocks of flats. They need a place where they can get more shelters because they are used to it. So they can buy and patronize bungalows with small lands attached than that of block of flats.
In your various housing projects how many houses units are you planning or targeting?
We want to develop 1000 housing units in Goza, 103 housing units in jukwoyi phase 3 then 500 housing unit in Jigawa, and another 200 housing units in Sokoto, 200 housing units in Abuja that is in Lubge. We are partnering with another developer at Jabi and that one amounts to 1.3 hectares of land. With the approval obtained from development control, we would construct and develop 200 housing unit so all together we are talking of developing 30004000 housing units all over the country in a period of 18 months to two years maximum.