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On behalf of the Minister of State, the Permanent Secretary, Directors, Heads of our various parastatals and staff of the Ministry of Works and Housing, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to this year’s National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development.
For the record and for information basis, it is important to mention that the National Council offers a platform of convergence for representatives of the federal government , for those of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to consider policy, agree programmes, form consensus about how life changing and beneficial policies, programmes and projects can be implemented not only by the federal government alone, but by all state governments and the FCT.
This is important in order to achieve wholesome and widespread delivery, access to as many as possible, and impact on an equitable scale.
While I welcome returning commissioners in some states, I am mindful of the changes that the general elections have brought in some states and therefore the change of personnel that have come with them.
I also therefore welcome very enthusiastically new members of the council and assure them of our commitment to assist them in achieving their developmental objectives for their state.
Let me point out that of all the National Councils that I know, I cannot recall easily any council for which the need for federal government and state government collaboration is so pivotal and defining for success like this Council for Lands, Housing and Urban Development.
This is due to many reasons, not the least of which is the Land Use Act, which vests control of lands in the territory of each state in the governor; and in minister of the Federal capital Territory (FCT) in the case of the FCT.
Added to this is the fact that the Supreme Court has decided since 2003, that urban planning and development control is the sole responsibility of the state governments in their territory, and that of the FCT in Abuja (34 states).
In other words, the use of land, whether for a house, office, market, school, hospital, petrol filling station or any other purpose is a matter solely for the state government.
Nevertheless, Housing is a social, developmental and economic objective of the federal government who cannot own land, unless allocated by the state government, and who cannot build unless urban planning department of states approve the development (Gwagwalada).
It is the foundation for that cooperation that we seek to continuously strengthen at each year’s national council meeting and then follow up with each state on a case by case basis.
The theme for this year’s meeting is “Housing Development and Consumer Credit as Strategies for National Prosperity”, and it is informed by recent developments in the economy and also by the commitment made by the federal government in its Next Level Agenda.
Permit me to recall that on the 12th June 2019, the President Muhammadu Buhari, in his address at Eagle Square, committed to lifting one hundred million people out of poverty. This is what Mr President said:
“China and Indonesia succeeded under authoritarian regimes. India succeeded in a democratic setting. We can do it. With leadership and a sense of purpose, we can lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.”
Since Mr. President made this progressive, ambitious and forward looking commitment, not a few have agonised about how. Some have divided the number of people by the number of years and wonder how 10 million people will come out of poverty, every year.
To yet another group, they understood it only in terms of employment.
I do not.
I understand it is a combination of employment, access to opportunities, value asset renewal, increase in income for those already employed, access to nutrition, freedom from disease, access to shelter and many more life enhancing opportunities that move people from want and poverty to access and prosperity.
This Council meeting emphasizes the need for the understanding that poor people are indigenes of the 36 states and FCT and it will require more than Mr President alone to achieve the commitment.
The impact of prosperity will be felt in the states and the governors and their commissioners have a role to play and they are already playing it, as I will show.
So too the Legislators at National and state levels.
However, let me point out that after that statement of June 12, which I choose to call the June 12 Charter for Prosperity, Mr President at the Retreat Preceding the inauguration of Ministers on the 21st day of August 2019 identified the following areas of focus for the administration over the term of four years namely:
i. Agriculture
ii. Health
iii. Education
iv. Energy (Petroleum products); and
v. Power
vi. Security
vii. Infrastructure
viii. Housing and Consumer Credit
Although all areas listed have a direct impact on poverty, improvement of quality of life, cost of living and prosperity, the focal areas for the Ministry of Works and Housing are infrastructure, generally for works, and Housing and consumer credit for the Ministry of Housing.
Whenever I visit the sites of the pilot National Housing project being undertaken across the 34 States who provided land, I see an ecosystem of commerce, employment and entrepreneurship.
From the contractor/construction company who wins the bid to the labourers on site who earn N3000 a day, (N18, 000 a week (for six days) and approximately N72,000 a month) ; to the owner of the concrete mixer I met in Oyo state who charges N20,000 a day: to suppliers and vendors of building materials, and employees of companies that manufacture paint, tiles, roofing materials, the federal government, and state government collaboration provided a step up towards the ladder of prosperity.
On each site, there were averagely at least 1000 people employed.
Therefore if we could have more sites per state and all states involved, clearly many more people will get an opportunity to work, to supply, to produce and to earn an income. This is a step on to the ladder of prosperity and a big contribution to the achievement of the June 12 Charter of Prosperity.
This is why we have resolved to use cooperatives as the vehicle to achieve more construction in many states in order to expand the scale of construction, and therefore maximize the scale of opportunities.
The Federal Mortgage Bank, which is our parastatal for providing construction and acquisition finance has been designated as the focal agency to drive this initiative and they will be providing a detailed presentation to the council shortly after my address.
What we see is that cooperatives have been successful in transportation, agriculture, trades and markets and among artisans. We think it can be successful in delivering large scale affordable housing if cooperatives acquire their own land, design what they want to build, get state urban planning approval, and federal government gives them, through the Federal Mortgage Bank, loans to construct and loans to members to buy.
This is our broad vision for enabling access to housing and consumer credit (loans) through construction.
Other policies and programmes are the issuance of backlog of certificates of occupancy and consent to land transactions ( 3,000) and (1,708) respectively.
These instruments strengthen and support access to credit and also contribute to improving value of land by 30%-40% and this asset value appreciation is a contribution towards the prosperity ladder.
Site and Service Schemes: Where Government provides roads and other infrastructure to land, improves the value of land by 30%-40% and this asset value appreciation is a contribution towards prosperity .
Slum Upgrade Projects: also being undertaken through the Urban Development department of the Ministry are other ways by which we improve quality of life and move people out of poverty. Every completed project not only renews the environment, replaces squalor with service, but it also improves the rental income to house owners and capital value of their property.
While I urge you all to listen attentively to the presentation by Architect Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, the Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank when he presents the plan on cooperatives, I urge you all to start thinking about :
A. Cooperatives and how they can register, own lands, contribute to the National Housing Fund and benefit.
B. How many cooperatives in your states can qualify and what you can do to help them
C. How to keep proper data and records of cooperatives and also the number of people employed on each site when work commences
D. How in your states you can use site and service schemes, prompt issuance of certificate of occupancy and consent to land transaction to drive poverty to the rear and propel people towards prosperity.
I have no doubt in my mind that the vision is achievable and surpassable, the building blocks for achieving it are already in place, and it is for all states and federal government, with the private sector to commit to work on the road to prosperity, through housing delivery, and access to credit on a massive scale.
Thank you for listening and I hope we have very faithful deliberations.
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Minister of Works and Housing
