By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, disclosed that his ministry is aimed at establishing building materials manufacturing hubs in each of the six (6) geo-political zones across the country .
He made this known yesterday at the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS), yesterday in Abuja .
Dangiwa said this is another area of focused to encourage local manufacture of building materials.So we can lower the cost of construction materials and housing delivery.
According to him, “We are actively seeking partnerships towards the delivery of these hubs and are open to partnerships from technically and financially capable institutions”.
He noted that “All the housing sector reform task teams are in the process of finalizing their reports.
“We are poised to examine and implement their recommendations to move the housing sector forward in our country”, he said.
Similarly, The Minister said “We all know that the current state of housing in our continent(Africa) is far from where it ought to be. “We have a dual challenge of inadequate housing supply to meet population growth and sub-standard housing which does not meet the conditions of Habitability, Safety & Security, Comfort, Sanitation.
“Others are Accessibility, Infrastructure, Social Amenities, and Socio-Cultural adequacy as set out by United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization (WHO)”, he stated .
He further explained that “This is a continent-wide problem. In Nigeria for example, recent surveys show that 75% (i.e. 31.6 million) of the 42million housing units in Nigeria are sub-standard.
“This means that our housing delivery strategies must combine urban renewal and the building of new houses to address Africa’s housing challenges”, he noted .
Similarly, the minister explained that”as part of our land reforms we are exploring a partnership with the World Bank towards the implementation of a National Land Registration and Titling Programme.
“Through this programme, we aim to partner with State Governments towards improving land formalisation from the less than 10% to 50% in the next ten years.”
The minister called on Stakeholders, Housing Development Institutions – local and International, and Corporate Organizations who believe that they can add value to send us Partnership Proposals for Consideration.
“We are open to your expertise, concessionary financing and knowledge”.
This year’s theme for African housing show is tagged “The Housing we Need”.
