Fashola Commends Private Sector Role

Fashola Commends Private Sector Role In Housing Sector

Minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, has commended the private sector for playing a major role in addressing Nigeria’s housing needs.

Represented on Monday by the minister of state for works and housing, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, at the 15th Abuja International Housing show, with the theme “Sustainable and Resilient Housing Solutions for a Post Pandemic World,” Fashola identified affordable housing as part of the agenda of the current administration.

He said, “As part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s developmental agenda of addressing housing needs in Nigeria, the federal government inaugurated a pragmatic National Housing Programme (NHP) for the construction of acceptable and affordable houses nationwide.

“The first phase of the programme commenced in the 2016 financial year in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Further to the above, the ministry is promoting local content in line with the Executive Orders 3 and 5.

“The use of available local building materials in the NHP has stimulated the economy through the production and use of these materials,” he said.

Also, Ghana’s minister of state for works and housing, Mrs Freda Prempeh, said investing in the construction of decent and affordable housing should be a top priority of every government.

Prempeh noted that the provision of affordable and decent housing for the middle and low-income segments of the population remained a challenge which must be worked out.

In the same vein, the minister of Environment, Dr Mohammed Abubakar said that apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, the planet change pandemic if not appropriately handled could cripple the housing sector.

Abubakar said countries were beginning to lose their land as a result of climate change, noting that all hands must be on deck to address the issue of land degradation.

Earlier, the convener of the show, Mr Festus Adebayo, had called for the involvement of youths in the future of affordable housing for the citizenry.