Aminat Yahaya —
Nigeria’s Labour party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in Lagos last weekend advised that to ensure continuity in sustaining housing initiatives, there must be a paradigm shift from a politically tenured programme to a national strategy that is driven by vision and commitment.
Obi, once a Chairman of Fidelity Bank, while revealing that infrastructural development distribution is key to housing development and distribution, also said that knowledge dissemination will be a key enabler in the country’s drive for national housing sustainability.
“To ensure continuity and sustainability of these initiatives, the government must transition from a politically tenured programme to a national housing strategy that employs the two critical variables of vision and commitment, he said.
“Knowledgeable professionals in the real estate sector must be willing to promote real estate business literacy to educate Nigerians about the opportunities for wealth creation in the real estate space.
“By doing this, real estate initiatives by the government will enjoy continued patronage and growth in its lifetime.
“Infrastructure development distribution is a key determining factor for housing distribution. Government must continue to encourage investment in infrastructure for housing, energy, transport, irrigation, and telecoms in rural and urban areas in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals SDGs.
“Government and other stakeholders must continue to look into rural industrialisation. A well distributed industrialization strategy will help to stem the tide of rural to urban migration and encourage developers to look into providing housing in these areas of need.
“In the private sector, real estate players must engage relevant government agencies and parastatals, financial institutions and private equity funds to raise capital for their projects as the major challenge for housing development in the country is adequate funding.
“Nigeria is a growth market in the global real estate industry. That’s the fact. While Nigerians are yet to come to terms with that, international investors are keeping close tabs on the African real estate space with careful attention to Nigeria.
“Perhaps the major indicator of this inherent opportunity is our ever growing population and Nigeria’s potential to become one of the world’s biggest economies in the near future.
