Immediate past President, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Mrs. Mercy Torkwase Iyorter has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to allow more private sector participation in the process of tackling housing shortfall in his second term.
Iyorter who made the call in an interview with Viewpoint Housing News in Abuja, noted that “All government needs do is to provide the enabling environment and other necessities, that will aid operation of the private operators.”
She maintained that the president needs to do more in tackling the nation’s housing deficit.
The former president of NIQS noted that to tackle the housing deficit, government needs to approach mass housing with all seriousness.
“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 profit-oriented private investors.
“The government alone cannot provide the needed houses and infrastructure for the country.
“It needs full participation of the private sector, through a well-programmed Public Private Partnership [PPP] scheme,” she added.
Iyorter expressed optimism that the Buhari-led administration would not relegate mass housing to the background in its second term.
She called for a serious review of the federal government housing policy in providing housing for the masses.
According to her, Buhari should remember his campaign promise to make housing affordable to the people, noting that his administration did not satisfy the yearnings of Nigerians in the first term.
She pointed out that the huge deficit in the housing sector is worrisome and therefore stressed the need to address the matter with utmost urgency.
“Housing all over the world has come to be regarded as a major national issue which should be given concern particularly in a developing country like Nigeria.
“No government worth its salt will overlook the sensitive issue of housing as it concerns its citizens.
“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,” she said.
This is even as she urged the federal government to 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, she 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 strategies on growing the sector,” she said.
