Dr Somadina Johnson Anene is Vice President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry and CEO of Shelter Aid Organisation. Shelter Aid Organisation is a non-governmental organisation with special interest in investment promotion and promotion of affordable housing delivery. It is the organiser of the Abuja Investment Expo. Speaking with Viewpoint Housing News in Abuja, Anene said the 4th Abuja Investment Expo scheduled for July 30th to August 1, 2019 holds much for both builders of affordable housing and those seeking to own a home. The expo with theme “Achieving Sustainable Growth through Affordable Housing Delivery” will expose participants to new building techniques, cheaper and safer building materials in the market and new investment opportunities.
Viewpoint: Looking at the housing deficit that Nigeria is presently facing, what do you have to say to developers concerning affordable housing in order to eradicate this problem?
Anene: Developers need to increase efforts to make sure that the cost of building is reduced because if the cost of production isn’t reduced the sales price wouldn’t be reduced, so the issue of affordable housing must start from the point of finding a way to reduce the cost of building and the government needs to improve access to land by making sure that plots of land are allocated to actual developers and not speculators that will just collect these lands to sell to developers and at the end make millions out of the lands, with that you now find out that the developers now pass the cost of that land to the final consumer.
Once the developer can have access to land straight from the government and is able to get building materials at reduced prices, the cost price of the final building unit will be more affordable for the masses.
More so when I talk about affordable housing I don’t just mean affordable housing, I mean quality affordable housing because there have to be a basic standard that every housing unit must meet. That’s why we attach quality condition to the issue of affordability.
Viewpoint: can you tell us what exhibitors stand to gain at the 2019 Abuja investment expo?
Anene: Exhibitors stand to gain a lot such as market exposure by bringing their goods and services to the attention of the teaming participants. You get to make new contacts that will be favourable to you and your business in the sense of establishment of business partnership. And there will be discussions about quality affordable housing. You stand the chance of being exposed to new building techniques, new building materials that are in the market that are cheaper and safer.
We are also looking at the area of new investment opportunities, going by the fact that Abuja has a lot of insensitive new investors, so when you attend you get in contact with all government agencies that will educate us.
This will be a greet avenue for those seeking opportunities to own their personal houses. This will be achieved by them meeting the developers and some of these developers will be doing promotion of houses at lower rates. Artisans will have the opportunity to be trained.
NIPC will be in attendance in order to educate us in areas of investment promotion. Some mortgage banks like the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Fourth Generation Mortgage Bank, Platinum Mortgage Bank will all be in attendance to educate people on how to acquire mortgages to fund their own houses with construction refinancing.
