Federal Housing Authority Board And The Fashola Challenge

By Modestus Umenzekwe

If shelter is one of the most basic human needs, it means it’s a necessity and the second most important human need, after food. What’s your take on this? You agree with me or not?

Already, the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele has pledged that the apex  bank will support housing development in order to create employment. That’s good news!

And to make it more interesting, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has registered to become a member of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria.

Though, there are complaints  of housing deficit and problems associated with housing in Nigeria, moves to be taken by the new board of FHA will evidently change the narratives in the housing sector in Nigeria.

These noble men of the Board of FHA, along  with others, are ready to go the extra mile in doing the needful to reduce the challenges in the housing sector.

I am talking of Senator Lawal Shuaibu ,the Board Chairman: Senator Gbenga Ashafa the Managing Director of FHA.

Let me thank Mr President, Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Minister of  Works & Housing, Babatunde Fashola, and all those who made it possible for getting the right people into the board and management of the housing agency.

From the British colonial era, Nigerian governments had at various times tried different housing policies and programmes to ameliorate the housing needs of Nigerians.

Some of the housing intervention policies are reflected in the Land Use Act, the Mortgage Institutions Act, 1989; the Federal Housing Authority Act, 1990; National Urban Development Policy, 1997; Housing and Urban Development Policy, 2002. Yet, the issue of housing development remains a challenge.

Even with government intervention in the housing sector like that of the Nigerian Army Housing Scheme; the Nigerian Police Force Housing Scheme; the Nigerian Port Authority Housing Scheme: Freehold Housing Scheme and Sites and Services Estates; and  Workers Housing Estates, the citizens’ need for housing  remained a recurring issue.

It’s surprising that with these interventions, there is still a housing challenge in Nigeria, though the Minister has a different perspective.

These problems as we were meant to believe before now include the Land Use Act of 1978 which puts all land under the management of the government. Yet, not everyone can afford acquiring Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) from the government. Other issues include lack of infrastructure; documentation; shortcomings of Mortgage Institutions; rural-urban migration/urbanization; poor quality houses and dilapidated condition of houses; and inadequate implementation of planning policies

Sometimes, institutions shy away from their primary responsibilities and become too focused on urban development at the detriment on the rural areas, thus increasing the much trumpeted housing deficit.

High level of ignorance is affecting housing development and needed organisations like the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (NICE) and the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development needs to embark on enlightening the people on how best to develop their property.

The new FHA board, in colloboration with the management, is poised to bring lasting solutions to the housing problems in Nigeria by partnering research institutes on how to exploit local raw materials and produce alternative building materials from them.

For a start, the board would support a critical review of rural and urban housing policies. Also, consideration would be given to the national development plan of Nigeria with regards to housing needs towards  the provision of habitable accommodation to citizens in rightful places.

Also, the board would look into development of rural areas to reduce rural-urban migration as well as partner with cooperative societies and real estate developers to provide housing infrastructure.

The new board  would intensify working with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN),  Federal Mortgage Finance Limited (FMF), Urban Development Bank (UDB), and all other relevant agencies working in tandem with FHA towards performing their roles effectively.

The board should equally look into the processes of registration and documentation of property to reduce the bureaucracy involved in getting approval for building plans and acquiring Certificate of Occupancy by property owners.

And the issues of provision of social amenities like electricity, good road networks, proper drainage systems and the likes in rural areas will go a long way to ease housing development in areas where amenities are lacking to help decongest populated cities.

This is because, it’s alleged that a minimum of additional one million housing units per annum is required to reduce the national deficit of about 17 million housing units if a housing crisis is to be prevented by year 2020.

But our boss the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said that there was nothing like housing deficit in Nigeria against what operators in the housing sector and government officials stated before now.

He spoke at the inauguration of the Board of Directors of the Federal Housing Authority, arguing that the housing deficit claims had no scientific and logical basis.

According to him, “There is something out there before we came in that Nigeria has housing deficit. It’s a lie.

“Unfortunately, it was a document that originated from this Ministry in 2012. It has no scientific basis, nor logical basis; so ignore it.”

I don’t agree with Fashola less, that the housing problem in Nigeria is an urban problem, because people who rented houses in the urban centres had empty buildings in their villages.

Listening to Fashola sounds convincing as according to him: “whether in Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja or Ibadan, we see empty and unoccupied houses and we need to begin to understand this problem.

“If we have things that are not used, does it make sense when we say that we have deficit of things available but not used?”

The biggest challenge now is how to unlock and bring the empty houses into the housing market.

This charge by the Minister to the newly appointed board members was apt, as they would have been blocked by the definition of deficit, rather than channel their understanding and professionalism for the benefit of all in unlocking the solution to empty houses in our villages and communities across Nigeria.

The Federal Housing Authority Act is the key for the board members to operate and the Minister didn’t mince words when he said: “essentially, your role will be as defined by the FHA Act and I urge you to quickly acquaint yourself with the responsibility under the act.”

With the leadership  of the new FHA Board Chairman, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, the Minister won’t regret finding the team worthy to support the adminstration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

For Senator Shuaibu, excuses of non-perfornance is far fetched a he had already assured the Minister that the board would implement the policies according  to the FHA Act.

The boa4d chairman, Senator Shuaibu, from Zamfara State is supported by other hard-working members which included Mr. Modestus Umenzekwe, Anambra State; Mr. Mumini Hanafi, Kwara State; Mr. Adamu Dadi, Yobe State and Mr. Adamu Ismaila, Adamawa State.

Others are Zubairu S.N, Nasarawa State; Ms. Chinyere Anokwuru, Abia State; Yinka Ogunsulire, Ondo State: Ms. Veronica Shinnaan, Plateau State; Aleruchi Cookey-Gam, Rivers State and Olajumoke Akinwunmi, Ogun State.

Also to serve as statutory members are the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr. Babangida Hussein and the Managing Director of the FHA, Senator Gbenga Ashafa.

I believe  that all members of the FHA Board will put on thier thinking caps in order not to disappoint not only our party, the APC, but the Minister, Fashola and Mr President, Muhammadu Buhari. This board, I believe, will bring to bear on their technical expertise in the discharge of their duties.

Thus, the FHA Board members would support President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic recovery programme targeted at increasing access to housing, ramping up employment opportunities through the building of infrastructure and invest in the Nigerian people.

It will be recalled that the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, had last year inaugurated the executive management team of the Federal Housing Authority with a charge to complete all ongoing housing projects of the Federal Government across the country.  This is also where the new board should bring in it’s capacity to bear.

The FHA Executive management team has Senator Olugbenga Ashafa as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, while Abdulmumuni Jibril is Executive Director, Business Development.

Mr Maurice Ekpeyong is Executive Director, Housing Finance and Corporate Services.

The board led by Senator Shuaibu would work assiduously with the executive management to ensure that the challenge of housing gaps in Nigeria is addressed. Going forward, there should  be renewed commitment to develop new estates in urban centres in order to address the housing needs which were greater in urban centres than the rural areas.

President of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko, believes that  investment in housing is an opportunity to revamp the post-COVID-19 economy. He even urged the Federal Government to look in that direction. This observation shall not pass the FHA board.

Wamakko said REDAN was ready and open for discussion with government to deliver over three million housing across the nation.

His words, “We are sure of creating thousands of jobs through housing construction. Direct building of houses shouldn’t be the business of the government; rather, they should provide an enabling environment and favourable policies for the private sector to do it.”

There is work to do and that is what the reconstituted board shall do. Fashola’s charge surely shall not be in vain as the management team and the board members shall reason together to handle the daunting challenges facing  the housing sector in Nigeria.

Onwa Achina, as Modestus Umenzekwe is fondly called, is a member of the Board of FHA, and wrote this piece from Abuja via [email protected]