By Chimezie Godfrey
Collaboration between public and private sector is key to addressing challenges in the housing system in Nigeria, says Mrs Kemi Olomola-Sijuwade,mni, Founder, Greenland Concepts Nigeria Limited.
She made the assertion during a paper presentation at the Abuja Housing Show 2021 with theme,”Building Support for the Affordable Housing Agenda Through Collaboration.”
Mrs Sijuwade noted that different opinions about housing policy/agenda in Nigeria are often inadequate or not robust enough.
According to her, at various times, Government has proposed housing policies, pointing out that in the two main government policies of the current government, the Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (ERGP) and recently, the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), housing is indicated as a major priority for government.
She therefore, stressed that the problem is not solely about policies (good or bad) but about the implementation capability of the nation’s housing system, adding that it is the reason why as a nation (and this applies to all most all African Countries too) the country is building way too few housing to meet people’s need.
She said,”The execution capability of our housing system is simply too weak. This takes us to the need for collaboration between stakeholders to develop that execution capacity.
“This matter of collaboration I think is perhaps one of the biggest issues we must address in the housing system in Nigeria today.
“For the affordable housing agenda to make any meaningful impact, there must be a synergy of all the stakeholders working together as a team and building support for the affordable housing agenda.
“The questions therefore are: What will good quality collaboration look like for us? How can we deliver effective collaboration amongst the key stakeholders in the housing system? What should be its structure? How will it be funded?How should it work?
“These are very big questions and I cannot do justice to those questions in the limited time that I have. So, what I will do is take just one aspect of collaboration and make a series of suggestions.
“At the very apex of the kind of collaboration we need is a partnership between the public and private sector.
“It is extremely unlikely that we can make much progress without significant improvement in the collaboration between the public and private sector players. Partnership must give way to envy.
“The public sector must embrace the responsibility to create enabling environment including land, statutory approvals, financing, developer incentives, standards and customer protection.
“On the other hand, the private sector must bring discipline and innovation to the design and construction of homes.”
On the practicability of this approach, Mrs Sijuwade recommended that there should be estalishment of Working Group of Stakeholders (WGS) who are committed to supporting the affordable housing agenda, among other recommendations.
According to her, the joint planning must be able to establish a framework for inclusive development in the drive towards achieving affordable housing agenda in the country.
“So how can we make this work in practice. Here are some provocative suggestions: Since it appears, we have a housing crisis on our hands as a crisis response, establish Working Group of Stakeholders (WGS) who are committed to supporting the affordable housing agenda, the WGS must engage in joint planning towards the creation of affordable housing at different level of society- from Federal to regional (Zonal) to States, Local Government Councils down to the Community level.
“This joint planning must be intentionally geared towards establishing a framework for inclusive development that can be cascaded to the lowest strata of the society in terms of achieving the affordable housing agenda.
“Set up State Affordable Housing Commissions as a public private partnership between state governments and organized private sector developers, academics, main landowners, building material suppliers etc.
“The Commission which should be jointly managed by private and public sector to be led by a representative Board including all stakeholders with leadership by rotation.
“The Commission is to be funded by modest subscription by stakeholders/ grants/government subvention/private sector contribution,” she stressed.
Mrs Sijuwade emphasized that one tool that can be used to achieve the required funding challenge is to set up a Housing Trust Fund with the specific purpose of creating and preserving housing for low- and moderate-income individuals within the state.
According to her, the Housing Trust Fund which can be managed by a non-profit organization, adding that the Trust Fund can also be capitalized by philanthropic organizations, commercial banks etc.
She also stated that the emphasis of the Fund will be on provision of affordable housing to low-income households especially for home ownership opportunities.
Mrs Sijuwade noted that in order to achieve practicability, the Commissions could be a One Stop Centre for affordable housing which would be designed and fitted to address the cardinal issues that contribute to affordability.
“Its key responsibility could include:Carrying out a Housing Needs Study every 5 years, Ongoing Capacity building and training program, Ensuring the Planning System sets aside adequate land to meet housing need by allocating lands for affordable housing and regeneration including slum Managing/Facilitating an Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
“In conjunction with Government issuing long term bonds; Providing independent statistics and data on annual housing delivery, Regulation of Developers including maintaining a quality standard etc, Consumer Protection, e.g defects insurance etc. Distill policy to execution.
“These are off the wall suggestions but at least it suggests that we need to do something radical – very radical to start to get the results we need across the Board,” she explained.
