An Expert in the built environment and Scholar, Dr. Samson Agbato has called for immediate review of the housing policy fund under the management of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and Land Use Act of 1978 in order to find practical solutions to the over 28million housing deficit in the country
Agbato who is the Director of School of Environmental Studies at the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital was fielding questions from newsmen on Wednesday at a press briefing heralding the 3rd edition of International Conference being organized by the school which has its theme "Sustainable Built Environment and Innovative Development In The 21st Century ", slated to hold between September 28 and 29 on the Ojere campus of the institution
He stressed the need for an increase of the mortgage loan facility from the current N45million to between N 60 and N70million to reflect the reality of the cost of a providing a descent housing
"The issue of financing has been a critical problem in housing sector, we are aware that the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria has increased the available fund for housing from N15million to N45million. I'm still saying government still need to do more to ensure that the mortgage institution is working", he stated
According to him, " a lot of people pay more to the housing fund and yet they don't have access to the fund , so government' needs to come up with a frame work that reflects the reality, as participants they should have access to the fund and there should be an increase from the current N45million to between N60million and N70million"
He added that such increase would enable participants in the housing fund to get a long term loan facility to fund housing project
"A lot of people who go to bank are failing to fund their housing projects because they are using short term loan facility to fund a long term housing projects. We need a long term loan facility to fund a long term housing projects, that is why the mortgage industry must come alive , so government' must revitalize our mortgage financial institutions as far as mortgage institutions are concern, he insisted
Agbato equally called for a review of the Land Use Act of 1978 which vested the management of land resources in the hands of the governor, saying such review will enable more people to have access to land for development and provision of more housing units in the country
Speaking on the forthcoming international conference, he revealed that the scholars and experts in the built environment sector would be providing practical solutions through their various paper presentations on how to minimize the cost of construction of housing using the best building materials as well as addressing the issue of climatic change arising from the challenges posed by depleted ozone layer
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