Stakeholders urge government to focus on affordable housing
With the population outstripping available homes, stakeholders in the industry have asked government to focus more on the provision of quality and affordable housing.
They canvassed for houses that meet people’s standards and delivered in record time, without the usual bottlenecks associated with acquiring properties in the country.The experts spoke at the 7th edition of the Africa CEO’s forum held in Kigali, Rwanda.
The forum, which is the continent’s largest international meeting of Africa’s private sector captains, international investors and high-level policymakers deliberated on the possibility of a fully developed African continent and the Nigerian nation without housing deficits.
Entitled, ‘Shaping the Future of Africa’, over 1,800 participants recommended more reforms to accelerate Africa’s economic integration.
Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Palton Morgan Holdings, Adeyinka Adesope, said meeting the housing needs of the citizens should be a major concern of government.
He stated that while the economy of the nation has been tough on most sectors in the last three years, it has been tougher on the real estate sector. “Hence, the federal government should wake up to the reality of the diagonal impact the housing sector has on the economy while major players of the sector must eschew ‘siloed model of operation,” he said.
Adesope wants government to reconsider the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), saying the integration of Africa is one of the ways the continent’s developments can be galvanized.
He declared that collaboration among African nations was key to developing the continent, which must also be embraced by major players in the real estate sector of Nigeria, to advance the sector.
“The company is delivering on various housing initiatives across the country to battle the housing deficit with offerings like PropertyMart Fairmont, fairest deal on the Lekki corridor, Grenadines Homes ‘Oceanna’, the icon of the nation, among others.
Through its member companies, the group’s strategic focus and policies rest on the development and completion of major projects in Nigeria and across the globe and the synergy of management and staff has grown the group to be one of the largest real estate investment firm in the country”.
Other participants at the forum urged African governments to take advantage of pension funds to bridge their infrastructure-funding shortfall and de-risk pension systems.
“Africa requires $95 billion every year to cater for its funding needs in energy, roads, ports, railway, and other infrastructure projects. However, they can only raise half of the required amount, which calls to look for more funding alternatives”.
The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Africa RE, Corneille Karekezi, said since investing in infrastructure requires a lot of liquidity, countries must create vehicles that would help accumulate the resources.
SOUCRE: https://guardian.ng/property/
