Kingsley U.N Chikwendu
There are problems that look mountainous to handle especially by the government but, requires the ideas and efforts of a team to be surmounted. Having a group effort or supplementing the efforts of different parts of a unit endears progress at a faster pace than leaving a task to be handled by a single body.
As well as the public sector, the private sector plays some unique roles in developing the fortunes of a nation, the private sector pays taxes, they give employment too, they provide some basic amenities at places that are still inaccessible by the government.
Numerous issues have plagued the country over decades that seem difficult for the government, these include housing issues. Today, the country is battling to reduce the housing deficit that has existed over three decades, thereby, halting the growth of some Nigerian environments. Private real estate developers who have it as their profession should be utilized in bringing solutions to the nation’s housing crisis in this regard because, they have the experience, expertise to proffer more solutions.
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As recent as last week Saturday, a real estate development company, COPEN Group, having concluded plans, said it is expected to develop and deliver 1500 housing units across different cities in the country between 2021 and 2023 to help ameliorate the housing crisis engulfed by the nation. According to the group, these housing units would be delivered in Abuja, Awka, Abakaliki, Lagos, Nsukka, 9th Mile Corner and Enugu.
These are the kind of efforts by private developers worth supporting by the government, creating more avenues for them to strive in creating affordable housing for the people.
According to the Managing Director of the group, Rev. Ugochukwu Chime, the immediate past President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria [REDAN] and one of its Board of Trustees members, said that his group is working on a three-fold vision of mentoring, poverty alleviation and housing for the masses. He added that his group has received a commission to deliver housing units annually for the next three years as part of its contribution to “assuaging the need of our people”.
It is true that the past and present governments have made modest achievements in housing delivery in the country but, can still achieve more if it considers and support these types of initiatives by private developers.
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If an individual can create this kind of foresight for housing development in the country, hoping to develop 500 houses in these states annually, making it 1500 housing units in three years, then, the government should bring these types of projects closer and see ways of supporting them for more housing development in the country.
An entire government aims at constructing 300,000 housing units under its Economic Sustainability Plan, whereas, a group like COPEN is striving at producing 1500 housing units in three years. We have others like them and the government is advised and expected to support them. They will do better if given such support.
Spreading this support across the six geopolitical zones in the country means spreading housing development at a quicker pace. Understandably, if you have like six companies in these zones, that means in three years, we will have development of more housing.