Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed that the Federal Government has started the process of registering developers of properties across the country.
Mr Fashola made this disclosure on Tuesday while delivery his keynote address at the maiden edition of the Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) conference organised by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos.
The Minister said the move became necessary because “some people resorted to property development out of a survival necessity rather than out of any capacity or knowledge about the industry.”
He said to tackle the issue of quacks and casualties resulting from properties built by inexperienced developers, the government had to come up with a policy that would checkmate this.
“We receive dozens of letters almost daily by people offering to build 10,000 housing units, (which seems to be the magical number for some of these emergency developers), without verifiable pedigree and track record of where they have built a simple 100 Housing units.
“We also have offers from road construction companies who want to build houses. The skill sets and logistics are entirely different even though they both involve construction,” he said.
Mr Fashola further said, “At the 2016 Shelter Afrique Annual General Meeting and the National Housing Summit which we hosted in Abuja, the recommendation from the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, which we have adopted is that we must accredit, certify and rank developers who will be allowed to participate in our scheme.”
“There is the view that government should get out of housing and leave it only to the private sector.
This was one of the issues debated at the summit. What the proponents failed to show us, was the proven capacity of the private sector on its own to meet the demand for housing and reduce the deficit considerably,” he added.
“The successful methods in countries I have referred to, show that Government often leads the way, first by policy, later by regulation and finally by empowerment and enablement.
“Our programme will not be different.
“The policy framework for standardization of designs, use of local materials, and registration of developers has already started. These are governmental initiatives,” Mr Fashola said.
