President of Shelter Rights Initiative, Barrister Festus Adebayo, has called on the federal government to channel the recovered loots to the housing sector.
Adebayo, who also kicked against subsidy in the sector, rather advocated intervention fund for its players, arguing that the step if taken, would address the huge housing deficit of the country.
Also, he called on the government to demonstrate political will by replicating the Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme policy, which was formulated and implemented for farmers to get loan at nine percent to make it accessible and affordable and stress free for farmers, in the housing sector.
Adebayo, who spoke with our correspondent in Abuja, said: “Subsidy is a scam, as we see in the petroleum sector with queues everywhere in our filling stations. We are clamouring for intervention funds for housing. It must go beyond the level of National Housing Fund.
“The latter is a deduction of 2.5 percent of basic salary of workers every month and that is what Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria is managing. What we are saying is that government should be committed so that people can have access to a pool of funds to borrow. The money could come from one percent of our budget or from pension fund or the money from the unclaimed money in banks or billions being recovered by the EFCC.
“What is responsible for the housing deficit is the lack of political will by the successive governments in Nigeria to give housing sector the desired attention. If there is political will on the part of the government, it would have demonstrated what it did or what it is doing in Agricultural sector in the housing sector too.
“The Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme policy was formulated and implemented for farmers to get loan at nine percent to make it accessible and affordable and stress free for farmers. If it is extended to housing, it will therefore be easier for a developer to take a loan and build at a lesser rate.
“Developers building at nine and 23 percent respectively will have different results. So, if the government has the political will, it would have told the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) what to do. It is just to send letters to commercial banks for every unused fund, pension money or money recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to be diverted to the housing sector at six percent or single digit interest.
“Any developer that has evidence of financial capability should be given access to land. Development control should stop granting building approval as a source of making money.
