[ad_1]
Punch Editorial Board
A new initiative by the Central Bank of Nigeria to strengthen mortgage financing in the country highlights the crisis in the country's housing sector. Although lacking details, the bank said it was working with the Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company specifically to address the challenges of providing affordable housing in the country. To address the huge housing deficit, the three levels of government must adopt a multifaceted new approach
. CBN vice-governor Aisha Ahmad explains that the collaboration with the NMRC is aimed at effectively mobilizing housing credits. Efforts to eliminate constraints in the provision of cheaper housing would also crystallize in parallel with the planned adoption of the Model Law on Mortgage and Foreclosure. This includes, among other things, the dismantling of some of the administrative and legal constraints in achieving the housing goal for all Nigerians, an objective set by the government four decades ago but missed. Instead, the gap has widened.
From just a few million units in the 1970s, the World Bank places the current deficit at 17 million homes. In contrast, faced with a similar housing shortage as a result of rapid urbanization, South Africa delivered more than three million homes between 1994 and 2017 to fill the void, imposing as one of the most ambitious countries in the world. Egypt, Africa's third-largest economy after Nigeria and South Africa, identified a national emergency situation when, in 2011, it had a deficit of 1.5 million people. housing!
According to Ahmad, Nigeria currently has only 13 million homes for a population estimated between 180 and 193 million, the final demand is estimated between 38 and 44 million units.
Housing is critical in all economies and generally takes a crisis dimension in emerging economies where rapid urbanization often exceeds economists' expectations, the ability of cities to provide new housing The shelter is a basic necessity after food and clothing. An article in the newspaper of Mail & Guardian in South Africa indicated that inadequate housing was both a threat to the security and development of society. According to the United Nations Development Program, housing is essential to human development and has implications for health and productivity. Provision of housing or lack of housing has also been linked to poverty and is adopted by the United Nations as a strategy for poverty reduction.
With a poverty rate of over 61% by the National Bureau of Statistics and 80% by the African Development Bank, Nigeria's housing deficit is not surprising. Think of Lagos, where it is said that 86 people move every hour and inflate its population of 23 million inhabitants. Other cities like Abuja, Onitsha, Port Harcourt and Kano are feeling the pressure for new housing. The provision of housing by the state is uneven and the loan rules are prohibitive.
Confronted with urbanization, responsive governments take a multi-pronged approach. In South Africa, all central, provincial and municipal governments are involved. The government's help targets low-income people. Durban, a large city in South Africa, provided 174,000 new units between 1996 and 2014.
The United Kingdom provides a model to emulate. There, private investment provides housing, while local councils provide the bulk of social housing through central government support. Housing badociations are also incorporated as non-profit organizations to provide housing for low-income people and the needy. Like the United Kingdom, India has also promoted strong mortgage financing through the reform sector to house its 1.2 billion people.
Apart from incompetence, successive Nigerian governments miss their goals by bad strategies and lack the political will and regulation to see through the good ones. A repeated blunder is the desperate attempt by the federal government to build homes directly. Without unlimited funds and by the sheer scale of logistics, it's ridiculous. A current plan to build 2,736 units in 33 states is typical: how can this rectify the 17 million deficit? It is the states and local governments that are best placed to do so. US city and county councils consistently partner with private developers to provide affordable housing through regulations, policies and grants.
The federal government should strengthen its partnership with states and local governments. the private sector and non-profit organizations. Land acquisition and building approval processes should be streamlined and housing ownership easier for low- and middle-income segments through less red tape, lower licensing fees and at a low interest rate. State governors should stop building houses for civil servants alone: they are elected to serve all, not a few.
The government should show political will to implement the national housing policy and make the National Housing Fund effective. The non-performance paralyzed the mandatory underwriting of 2.5 percent of each worker's NHF wage specified by law. The system has also been beset by the dominant culture of corruption and nepotism, resulting in low repayment of the low interest rate credit provided by the Fund through primary mortgage institutions. Solving the problem will require an in-depth reform of the mortgage financing sector, which currently contributes less than 1% to gross domestic product, unlike OECD countries where it exceeds an average of 50%.
But the daunting task is to tackle macroeconomic problems. on the environmental side, where the interest rates for the productive sectors are on average between 22 and 28 per cent and the borrowing rates for the real estate sector between 28 and 36 per cent. Laws requiring banks and insurance companies to reserve a percentage of their credit and investment in real estate are ignored.
Construction is a major creator of jobs and the supply of housing alleviates poverty: the three levels of government today to reform the housing sector
Copyright PUNCH .
All rights reserved. This material, and any other digital content on this site, may not be reproduced, published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without the prior written permission of PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]
(Visited 60 times, 7 visits today)
[ad_2]
Source link
