The President, Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria, Victor Onukwugha, has said the cost of housing units is gradually getting out of reach of the people, especially the low income earners.
Onukwugha disclosed this in Lagos at the opening ceremony of the 6th international conference on housing and exhibition, tagged, Housing Africa, 2022, with the theme, “Sustainable Housing Methods to Solving Housing Deficit in Africa.”
He said, “Our major objective in the association is to make decent accommodation accessible to Nigerians at affordable cost and that, of course, is one of the reasons behind this conference.
“The importance of housing to mankind cannot be underestimated and it is the second most essential need of man after food. As important as housing is to mankind, the cost of housing units is gradually getting out of reach of people, especially the low income group.
“The global economic and political crisis does not spare any continent as the effects manifest in the rising prices of virtually everything. The prices of housing units are continually on the increase and unaffordable especially in developing economies where people are not adequately empowered to acquire houses.”
He noted that in recent past, housing challenges in Africa seem to have defied all solutions.
“These problems range from lack of holistic approach to housing matters, lack of finance, high cost of building materials, high infrastructural development cost, implementation of policy direction and affordability challenges among others,” Onukwugha stated.
The AHCN president said diverse housing policies had been evolved and reviewed in time past, adding that despite all theories and ideas that had been propagated and shared in so many fora, the challenges of housing availability, accessibility, and affordability were still prevalent.
He said, “Certainly, the housing needs of the people are enormous and opportunities abound in the construction and housing sector, but what are we doing with these opportunities amidst high demand without corresponding supply?
