Government can’t achieve much without estate developers - FCT REDAN chair
Mr. Andrew Elerewe is the Chairman/CEO of AIBEN Investment & Properties Ltd, and current FCT Chairman of the Real Estate Developers Associations of Nigeria (REDAN). In this interview, he talks about how government and real estate developers’ synergy can boost affordable housing delivery.
As the new FCT chapter chairman of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), how do you intend to add value to REDAN members and the nation`s housing industry in general?
As a real estate practitioner with over 14 years of entrepreneurship experience and over 15 housing estates spread across three states - Lagos, Abuja and Katsina - I am well equipped to contribute meaningfully to my constituency, REDAN, and the housing industry as a whole.
First, we want to change the way government sees us as developers; we want government to see us as strategic partners, not just as people who are just concerned about making profit. We have a common objective in terms of providing housing; government has the basic responsibility of providing Some operators in the housing and construction industry have congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari on his re-election, tasking him to approach the issue of housing, especially mass housing, with all seriousness.
The experts told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the president had not done much in tackling the nation’s housing shortfall which stood at 17 million in spite of his remarkable achievements in about four years.
Mr Adelaja Adekanmbi, Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Lagos Chapter, called for a serious review of the Federal Government housing policy in providing housing for the masses.
Adekanmbi said President Buhari should remember his campaign promise to make housing affordable to the people, noting that his administration did not do much in the period under review in that direction.
He pointed out that the huge deficit in the housing sector was worrisome and therefore stressed the need to address the matter with utmost urgency.
“President Buhari should without any further delay; take a drastic action in the provision of mass housing for Nigerians who are in dire need of low cost houses,” he said.
shelter- that’s the basic responsibility of a responsible government. So, we are like an instrumentality through which such could be accomplished. It is important for them to see us as strategic partners because by the time you solve the issue of housing almost everything is solved.
That’s where we will start from, by engaging government at all levels and letting them come to that realisation and of course making them see how it is done in other climes. Take for instance Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, they have been able to transform their cities through real estate which is being driven by the private sector. So, they can’t take us for granted. It is important that they change that perception.
Secondly, we want to work on our membership strength. We will form more cohesion, partnership as part of the way to solve the dearth of construction finance. We have problems with accessing funds, but I believe that with formidable
Mr Markinde Ogunleye, former Chairman, Nigeria Institute of Town Planners (NITP), suggested that President Buhari should constitute a high powered committee to look into the problem bedeviling the housing sector with a view to fashioning out a road map for the sector.
While admitting that there was already an existing committee on housing set up by the government, Ogunleye added that the existing committee may be fused into the new one.
“The committee should comprise of intellectual professional stakeholders in the built environment who can strategise on growing the sector,” he said.
Contributing, Mr Olayinka Omotosho, former Chairman, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), urged government to allow more of the private developers to get involved in the process of driving the housing sector if it was desirable of tackling the housing shortfall.
“There are thousands of houses built in major cities of the country but they are not affordable to many Nigerians because the houses are built by profitoriented private investors.
“All government needs do is to provide the enabling environment and other necessities, that will aid operation of the private operators. (NAN) partnership on the part of members and other practitioners we can overcome that challenge.
What do you expect from the new administration concerning housing delivery?
I think our expectations are very high, especially from the incoming government. We want a government more responsive towards housing that would be able to solve the plethora of issues that we have. We have quite a number of them but the good news is that they are all resolvable. We all need to come to the table and they also need to carry us along in whatever policies they need to take.
Just like recently, they prohibited the issuance of approval to all area councils’ title holders. That’s a policy that is farreaching; we need to be consulted, we should have been consulted and then carried along adequately because when you make such policy it has a far-reaching effect on the economic landscape.
Those who are caught in that web now for those who are processing for approval of titles they can’t go further; those who have titles can’t sell them as investments and then the land is stuck there.
They are not saying the titles are defective, but we can’t get approval that is what they are saying. So what does that mean, for us that is double standard.
As for the title of the land you say it is okay, so why tell the person to get approval? It just doesn’t make sense and government needs to be businesslike and begin to see time as a very valuable tool, because time is what we don’t have as developers. You can’t just keep me in perpetuity, you create a suspension, a policy and then you are not saying anything for many years.