Spurred by the last week separation of the Ministry of Power from Works and Housing by the President, critical stakeholders in the built environment have urged the supervising Minister, Babatunde Fashola to use the experiences garnered in the last four years to stir the real estate sector to the path of recovery.
They noted the significant progress made so far but felt the unbundling of the ministry would make the minister more focus to tackle the nation’s huge infrastructural challenge and housing gap.Currently, Nigeria needs about N10.63tn ($67bn) to tackle her infrastructure gap, while about 108 million Nigerians are estimated to be homeless, based on an average family of six people per housing unit, which has robbed her teeming population the comfort that a good house brings.
Also, homeownership rate in the country is put at 25 per cent, lower than that of Indonesia (84 per cent), Kenya (73 per cent), and South Africa (56 per cent). But experts drawn from the housing industry and urban development believed that Fashola need to work closely with relevant professionals to move the sector to the next level.