Nigeria: Govt must create enabling environment for low-income housing provision —Adedire

Zawya

2 days ago

Mr. Bisi Adedire is the President of Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON). In the interview with DAYO AYEYEMI, the chartered town planner speaks on what the government needs to do to bring about provision of low-income housing for Nigerians. He also speaks about the proposed monthly rental collection, the need for implementation of Development Plans in Nigeria and other issues.
Goverment is doing everything possible to enforce mandatory monthly rental collection in Lagos State. What's your take?
The tenancy policy of Lagos State, as people say, rewards the tenant rather than the landlord. If you look at the situation critically, even government cannot meet the housing needs of the citizens.
The government doesn't have control when it comes to the sales of building materials. People import building materials and they fix prices on their goods based on the cost of importation. Nobody controls that. Even the local producing industries, I mean the indigenous companies in the country, they produce and just fix prices anyhow, and nobody controls that. Let's look at the products that are being produced in the country, like cement, the producers don't have competitors.
It's like a monopolistic market. The producers determined everything, even the quantity to be supplied in the market and the prices they are giving to each of these products.
For this reason, people don't have any choice than to patronise them. Look at the rising cost of iron rod, also, government just leaves everything to the forces of demand and supply.
In the past, we used to have price control; and by the time people buy at exorbitant rate, you don't expect them to go less, because they are out there to make money.
They are no charity organisations, they work to make their money. But when policy comes in a way that doesn't suit or create that enabling environment for people to invest in the housing sector, the problem will be. There will be housing shortages.
Can't government fix the housing shortage?
Looking at it critically, the population is growing astronomically with less housing supply in the market. This is one of the problems. When the demand for housing is much higher than the supply, the resultant effect is to have increase in the cost of living. For now, if government is bringing in any policy, let it be balanced. Let government creates an enabling environment where people can be able to afford to buy land at a reasonable cost at a given period. Let there be institutional framework that will assist the prospective housing developers. Let the government work on the cost of obtaining a planning permit, which is on the high side. Lagos State Government is trying, but at the same time, recently they created an amnesty programme for 90 days, where people can just come and pay for their assessment without paying penalty for those that, maybe contravene in one way or the other by building without a planning permit. So it's a good schedule. Not that government will just be giving policy that will not benefit from. As I've said, Lagos State is trying to do something reasonable. In the Ministry of Physical Planning, I think they are trying to do their best, but it is not enough.
Are these suggestions enough to bring about low-income housing provision?
When I said institutional framework and creation of an enabling environment, I meant cheap land provision, building materials and funding. Let there be mortgage loans for prospective housing developers. Let's create an enabling environment in the area of institutional development. Let people be encouraged.
Of recent, the Federal Government sealed over 4,000 houses in Abuja for non-payment of Ground Rent. Don't you think the action of government will send wrong signal to investors?
Honestly, I am not against government collecting revenue when it comes to housing development. My stand is that, let it be reasonable. I can assure you that in some states, if you have a parcel of land that is above one hectare, you will go through a series of stages before you can get final approval.
At last, you pay for capital improvement charge. At the ministry where you want to get the layout, you pay neighbourhood improvement charge. By the time you want to obtain planning permit, you pay infrastructure development charge. At the end of the day, by the time you complete your house, the government will still come and ask you to pay land use charge, making four different fees on a particular land. In some instances, government might not come to your place if you are not in a prime area to provide all the infrastructure. Are you getting it? And that is why we are saying that government should try to reduce these fees
Payment of land use charge is not a crime, but you should be reasonable in your decision so that you don't create unnecessary burden for investors.
Investors are trying to contribute to the effort of the government. It is the government's responsibility to provide housing and infrastructure for the society. But now the government is not doing it, and you now have a group of people that are interested in providing that, government should be able to encourage them. That›s what I›m saying.
What can be done to ensure the implementation of Development Plans in Nigeria?
Well, this is era of democracy. You should understand that successful governments have their own agenda. I could remember in 1979, during the reign of Shagari, it was a slogan: «Housing for all by the year 2000» as if year 2000 will never come. Are you getting it? This is 2025. We still experience housing shortages. If government doesn›t take planning as something serious, there will always be a problem, because development plan starts from the local level.
You have local plans, you have regional plans, you have national physical development plan at federal level. If government does not put in effort at making sure that all these plans are readily available, how do you determine the patterns of growth in any community? So it is a major thing, and government should take it seriously. But what we used to have these days is that government would want to spend on an area whereby they will be able to recoup their investment.
This is the problem! The planning we are talking about is not like a commodity market, we are talking about the patterns of growth of towns and cities. It is not a thing you can just take to the market and say you want to sell. But you will enjoy the benefit of doing it in the society.
What is the ATOPCON doing to ensure that government pays attention to development plans?
Let me tell you, there is a lot of information disseminated from our own end. We have stakeholders meetings, we do publications, we grant interviews just like the one you are doing. We also write to the government.
Recently, we submitted a proposal to the state government, and thank God, they are responding positively to our yearnings. I give kudos to the Lagos State Government and the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development.