FG To Initiate A National Cooperative Housing Scheme For Informal Sector – Fashola * Minister commends the innovativeness of promoters as he unveils Prefabricated Assembly and Installation Building Facility in Abuja * Says objective is to use cooperatives as a driving force in the countrys Housing programme * Pledges governments support for initiatives that promote national housing * Urges caution over the repetition of a housing deficit figure that is unfounded The Federal Government plans to initiate a National Cooperative Housing Scheme in the country as a provision to bring the informal Sector into the nation’s Housing Programme, the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, has said in Abuja. Fashola, who spoke at the unveiling of Karmod Nigeria Limited’s Pre-Fabricated Assembly and Installation Building facility in Abuja, said the objective was to use cooperatives as a driving force in the country’s Housing programme adding that their success in markets, in transportation and Agriculture, among other areas of the economy would be an incentive to achieve success in the sector. The Minister, who said the government would also leverage on the successes and numerical strength of the cooperatives manifested in the many unions and associations they have in every state of the country, added that they would be mobilized under the aegis of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to obtain loans to develop their own houses according to their tastes and preferences. Cooperatives which would be eligible to participate in the scheme, the Minister said, would be those “who are properly registered, who have their trustees and leaderships to act for them, who have their own lands and who convey an approval  of the type of house they want so that they won’t be stranded”.  “We will tell them to get a planned approval for land in which ever state so that it won’t become a slum. We will work with that state’s government to ensure that access roads are built; we will give them development loans to give Real Estate developers so that you build for yourself and contribute the counterpart fund to finish. In this way we will achieve the scheme”, he said. Fashola said the Next Level Agenda of the present administration encompasses policies and programmes that are people oriented and are meant to consolidate and sustain the achievements made in the last four years in all sectors of the economy adding that policies like the Eligible Customer and the Off-Grid initiative have enabled private businesses to source their own power either directly from generation companies or independent of the national grid as done by Messrs Karmod Nigeria Limited. “If you follow the trajectory of government plans, Housing and Consumer Credit, this is one of the major objectives of this government in its Next Level Agenda; Agro development, food production, processing, manufacturing and transport infrastructure – Roads, Rail, Airports and Seaports, Education and Healthcare. These are the major focal areas of this government”, the Minister said. He commended the Chairman of the Company, Mr. Hakeem Shagaya, for investing in Housing saying in so far as it seeks to boost housing development in the country, the investment “sits appropriately within the focal area of the government which is Housing and Consumer Credit”. “In the past, government has made policies that support direct access for small , medium and large agencies to take their own power directly from generating companies under the policy of Eligible Customer”, he said adding that the decision by the company to adopt Off-Grid supply was also a major policy shift of the Buhari Administration in the last three years; “promoting direct and independent power development so that business clusters can come together, develop their own grid, share it subject to licensing by the regulator; and so also can market clusters”. Also congratulating the Chairman of Karmod International, Mr. Mesut Cankaya from Turkey “for bringing the investment to Nigeria”, Fashola, who told him that as government, from local, state and federal government, “Nigeria is  ready to do business”, assure him of government’s support, not only at the Federal level but also at the municipal level “to enable you plant your foot and expand your business”. Describing the investment in pre-fabrication method of building houses as “an innovation into Housing development”, which, according to him, “proposes an alternative method of building houses”, Fashola said the innovation was welcome; adding , “innovation is the driver of growth; it is the driver of prosperity and we are ready to partner with you”. The Minister, however, tasked the Chairman and his team to engage in aggressive marketing “to persuade the end users to change what has become an acquired taste” adding that this would be expedient because taste and preferences in the choice of houses differ from country to country, from community to community and even from culture to culture. “In some countries you see people building with timber; in other places they prefer burnt brick and in some other places they have adopted container type buildings. In all of this and at the end of the day no one can successfully prescribe that this is the method of Housing that people must all adopt”, he said adding that the transformation or acceptability was often slow and informed by culture, experience and other social indices. He recalled some places where government had suddenly tried to move people from mud houses and the project had been developed but with no consultation and preparation adding that the people chose to ignore those houses and refused to move. He told the Chief Executive, “So it is now where the product can meet the market and that will be the challenge to you and your team how to make this an acceptable method of building”. The Minister noted, however, that with the growing population of young people who, according to him, “are ready to go and who do not require too much space to operate in”, it would not be too burdensome to find a market for the type of building, adding that the young people would more readily accept such innovation than the older generation. “We must accept that we have a growing large population of young people. We will also accept that we cannot live the same way. Their needs have changed, they do not need too much space. Their world is reduced to their laptops. They want to get up and go”, he said adding that all of the planning in infrastructure development must take cognizance of the need of the young generation. Fashola promised that if the company could find ready market, government was positioned to respond. He declared, “But whatever you do, if the rubber (product) meets the road (market )and you close the deal, again, apart from infrastructure, government is positioned to respond”. “We have the Federal Mortgage Bank that is managing the Housing Fund. The director is here; and every month they disburse a substantial amount of money from contributions made by contributors to help people access housing, to help people develop estates”, he said adding that it would be in the common interest of every Nigerian to open an account with the Federal Mortgage Bank because, according to him, “once we do, we will very likely benefit from it”. Dismissing the much touted 17 million as Nigeria’s housing deficit, Fashola, who said he had investigated all the quoted sources of that figure, including the World Bank, declared, “Where did the 17 million figure come from”, adding that according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistic survey, the actual figure of Nigeria’s households stand between 35 and 40 million households nationwide. “Let us assume that one family lives in one house and you are saying that 17 million is the deficit; that means that more than half of Nigeria’s population is homeless. Is it a reality?”, he said adding that there was need to think through the issue and plan with the correct numbers so as to get the market right while the investment would also be sustainable and could deliver from the profit returns. Maintaining that the 17 million housing deficit was unfounded, Fashola disclosed that the Ministry of Works and Housing has set up a team, and is hiring research companies to go round major urban centres to do an audit as a sample of how many houses have been virtually unoccupied for six months and above. “That will tell us whether we should be producing more or change strategy”, he said. During a short interaction with newsmen after inspecting the Karmod Prefabrication facility, Fashola, who reiterated that it was an innovation in the Built Industry, declared, “It is innovation by young people; it’s  innovation that brings investment into Nigeria, it is innovation that brings business and progress. And, therefore, government recommends it as part of its business expansion along with the  economic opportunities that it brings”. “So it sits very well with one of the key objectives of the government in terms of housing development and consumer credit. Every house creates a demand for finance. And potentially every mortgage being signed deepens our access to credit for people”, the Minister said. Noting that the framework of the prefabricated building he just commissioned within the company’s premises was made from 12 shipping containers and finished with cement boards and other materials, the Minister reiterated that if the product found acceptability and the company was able to roll it out, government would give support through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. “To my right here is one of the directors of the Federal Mortgage Bank who is saying that if they find buyers who are ready to off-take  and there is a market and those buyers are willing to bank with the FMBN that will elicit for them an opportunity to get  mortgage finance credit”, he said, adding, “So, we are, in a sense as government, with policies and programmes, taking demand to the market and enabling entrepreneurship flourish”. Earlier, in his welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Mr. Hakeem Shagaya, said the company was established five years ago in partnership with a Turkish company with the objective of helping to bridge the nation’s housing deficit  which he put at about 17 million adding that in order to address the problem the company has adopted the simple philosophy of fast production, fast execution and fast assembly. Also present at the occasion which took place at the company’s premises at Plot 3075, along Kubwa Expressway, included Chairman, Karmod International, Mr. Mesut Cankaya and renowned entrepreneur Alhaja Bola Shagaya, among other Stakeholders in the Built Industry as well as top officials from the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. ...

Building Collapse: Fashola Urges Prosecution Of Culpable Individuals To Serve As Deterrence * As Minister hosts members of the National Building Code Advisory Committee on courtesy call * Says it is not enough to have a Code or have trying laws but for people to know that there would be consequences for non-compliance * Urges Committee to begin its advocacy plans with students to expose them to basic building  best practices early in life * Commends the Committees work on the standards for Gas Piping, research into the earths movement in some parts of the country The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, Thursday called for the prosecution of builders found culpable in building collapse incidents in any part of the country saying it was the only way to send a strong message to builders to comply with the national building standards. Fashola, who spoke in his office in Abuja while hosting members of the National Building Code Advisory Committee who paid him a courtesy visit, said where an investigation has been concluded in any event of building collapse and someone was found not to have complied to any of the building standards, such a person should be prosecuted as an example to others. Expressing regrets that there has been little or no prosecution of any person after an investigation has been concluded over a collapsed building, noted, “Somebody must have acted wrongly, either in the design stage, whether it is in the material supply, whether it is in the compliance stage, somebody did something that he or she should not have done”, adding that such a person must be exposed and taken up for prosecution. “I think that we have come to a point where after each unfortunate collapse we go back to the investigations, let us find one person who has acted wrongly; somebody must have acted wrongly, either in the design stage, whether it is in the material stage, whether it is in the compliance stage, somebody did something that he or she should not have done. Find that person and let us take him up for prosecution”, the Minister said. Pointing out that such an example was what every society needed, the Minister said people needed to know that there would be consequences for non-compliance to the law adding that because people have died in any event of building collapse, the culprit could become answerable for manslaughter or for criminal negligence or answerable for so many other things. “It is important for people to know that those laws are there to affect how people behave and that when people don’t comply with those laws there would be consequences”, he said adding that once somebody was made to answer questions before the public, “irrespective of the outcome, others will sit up. People will know that it is no longer the way it was and that you do it at your own peril”. Advising professional builders to resist the temptation to shield their members during investigations, Fashola recalled an incident in Lagos when he was Governor pointing out that while investigation was getting close to the culprit of a building collapse, there was “conspiratorial silence” in the industry which enabled the culprit to escape prosecution. “In places where investigations have been concluded, there will be findings; that there were substandard materials used, who supplied; or wrong design , who designed it? That is the person to hold. Or that designs were okay and materials were appropriate but they removed some, so who removed, who supplied? We can track all these things down. We have that ability”, he said. On the notion in some quarters that the major reason for building collapse was the absence of a National Building Code, Fashola declared, “I am not sure in my mind and I find it difficult to accept that the absence or presence of a Building Code or an updated Building Code is the major cause of building collapse”. According to the Minister, a lot of things have been quite standard for buildings for over a century and that if builders do those things and build with them; things like designs, materials and compliance to the basic standards there would be less of building collapse across the country adding that it is not enough to have a Code or have trying laws but to comply with the Code or building standards. He expressed delight at the disclosure that the Committee’s work on the Standards for Gas Piping was essentially getting to conclusion. He said that it was a matter of national priority then that the Committee, in collaboration with the then Minister of State for Petroleum, should work to totally eliminate gas flaring by increasing demand for gas for domestic use. He said because safety was the basic concern as people generally thought that gas was not safe, the only way to make it safe was to design minimum standards that were applied in other countries to ensure that gas could “pass through our cities and be beneficial to us without us being in any danger when we use it”, adding that in that sense the Committee was contributing and supporting a major source of the nation’s  energy use. Fashola, who commended the advocacy plan of the Committee aimed at sensitizing members of the public on the basic building standards, however, advised that such sensitization should start from primary up to tertiary levels adding that the contents should be broken into “easy modules and easy bites” at every level for easy understanding and consumption. Describing students as the “more critical stakeholders” in the Built Industry, the Minister said they were going to be more involved in the industry from now adding that unless they were exposed early in life to the global best practices in the Built Industry, they would learn it very late. He declared, “Every level of education is important; the undergraduate level, the secondary school and even the primary school level. You can breakdown what they need to learn in easy modules and easy bites. Just like you learn something at the primary school level and it gets tougher as you progress to the secondary and university levels”. The Minister promised that Government would get involved at this point with school teachers and principals as well as state Ministries of Education “so that some basic essentials of the building are to be  inculcated to the people in childhood”, adding that there was need “to be sufficiently connected with our habitats like in other communities”. Fashola also advised the Committee to use street level conversation strategy in their interaction with the public during their sensitization programme for a better and effective sensitization pointing out that such programmes had failed in situations where professionals used technical languages and codes while explaining matters of public importance to them. “All too often, professionals cannot breakdown the essential elements of their profession to street level conversation. We speak in such technical terms that make no connection with the ordinary people”, the Minister said and recommended for adaptation the example set by Professor Ransome Kuti as Minister of Health when he introduced the Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) Programme to the public. “All that he was talking about had all the scientific codes and electrolyte balance in the body. But he broke it down to just water, salt and sugar; things that people can understand at street level”, he said adding, “That is the kind of communication that you can effectively have at street level so that you let people understand and appreciate some of the minimum standards that we have, and where they don’t exist, they can escalate them quickly to the authorities and we can prevent accidents and disasters before they happen”.  The Minister also expressed delight that the Committee was researching into the earth movement in some parts of the country adding that he would love to see the results of whatever investigations that the body would arrive at and the recommendations that could affect the industry in terms of designs and quantity and quality of materials, among others. Earlier, in his remarks, Chairman of the Committee, Architect Mohammed Faworaja, had given an update of the activities of the Committee since inauguration on July 26, 2018 to include conclusion of work on the guidelines for gas piping to buildings in the form of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) adding that a draft code has been prepared to be procedurally presented to a Stakeholders’ Workshop between now and November before incorporating it in the National Building Code. Also, according to him, the Committee had, after inauguration, also set up some needed technical committees which include the Design, the Construction and Post--construction sections adding that the sub-committees have already commenced work monitoring the day-to-day activities of the Committee. Other activities, he said, include monitoring building related activities nationwide, adding that one of the most worrisome outcomes of the monitoring was the incidences of building collapse across the country particularly in the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and other cities in the country. Also present at the occasion was the Minister of State, Engr. Abubakar Aliyu, Director of Public Building, Director Engineering Services, among other Directors in the Ministry, Special Advisers to the Minister and other top functionaries of the Ministry while the Chairman National Building Code Advisory Committee was accompanied by other top executives of the Committee including Zonal Representatives.A ...

Fashola Commends UN-Habitat’s Commitment in Addressing Global Challenges of Urbanisation Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola has commended the United Nations Human Settlements Programmes (UN-Habitat) for its commitment towards addressing the global challenges of urbanization. Fashola spoke today in his office while receiving a delegation of the UN-Habitat Mission who paid him a courtesy visit to brief him on the outcomes of the validation workshop on the evaluation of the memorandum of understanding between the Federal Government of Nigeria and UN-Habitat which was held in Abuja. The Minister who requested the UN body to supply more information on the areas of intended collaboration, also told the delegation that, as a conscious national strategy, Nigeria would look out for how investment would grow our economy and develop our people Fashola  noted  that  the  challenges  of  housing  needs  were  more  pronounced  in  urban  cities  than  in  rural  communities, adding  that  there  was  the  need  to  get  data  on  where  people  want  houses,  the  type  of  houses  and  affordability. He  added  that  there  was  the  need  to  work  out  a  strategy  on  housing  to  meet  the  interest  of  all  stakeholders. The Minister assured the delegation that the Federal Government of Nigeria would continue to collaborate and work with the UN body to achieve the clear mandate of the UN- Habit Programme The head of the UN-Habitat delegation Dr. Naison Mutizwa- Mangiza, earlier told the Minister about some key outcomes of the validation workshop which include among others; review of the MOU between UN-Habitat and Nigeria, setting up technical committee to review the MOU, data collection on housing infrastructure, project conceptualization and management and knowledge and technology transfer. He also told the Minister about the forthcoming Conference of Ministers’ of Housing scheduled for Abu Dhabi next year 2020 and extend invitation to Nigeria to attend Earlier at the opening of the Workshop, the Minister of State Works and Housing, Engineer Abubakar Aliyu, expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation and harmonious working relationship between the Federal Government and the UN-Habitat in the implementation of the various sustainable human settlements programmes in Nigeria. He recalled that the Federal Government of Nigeria signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the UN Human settlement Programme Support (UN-Habitat) in 2001 to establish a UN-Habitat Programme Support Office (HAPSO) in Abuja, Nigeria, explaining that the mandate of HAPSO was derived from the UN-Habitat’s United Nations General Assembly global mandate to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. Engineer Aliyu further explained that, the 2014-2015 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) specifically mandates HAPSO to “assist interested Governments at Federal, State and Local levels in Nigeria through, Technical Cooperation, field projects, provision and exchange of expertise, networking, public information, capacity building and consulting services” under the guidance of UN-Habitat’s Regional Office for Africa.  The Validation Workshop was organised by the UN-Habitat in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, to give opportunity to stakeholders to review the operations of UN-Habitat Programme Support office (HAPSO) in Nigeria. The HAPSO office became operational in October 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria. “We believe the urbanization challenges in Africa require African solutions. For this reason, Nigeria has been at the fore front of championing the African Urban Agenda which is aimed at mobilizing nations to unite in its quest for ‘home made’ solutions to her urbanization challenges and to contribute in unison to the global urbanization debate” Aliyu said   ...