The President, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Mr. Agele Alufohai, has expressed concern over the slow pace of reforms in the housing sector and the mortgage finance system.
Alufohai spoke while presenting the institute’s assessment of the 2013 Federal Government budget and its implication on the construction industry.
He said while NIQS and other stakeholders in the industry welcomed the recognition that President Goodluck Jonathan had accorded to housing as a veritable tool for structural economic transformation, they, however, were frustrated about the “excruciatingly slow pace of the housing sector reform.”
According to him, policy and legislative reforms in the sector will unlock massive domestic and international investments.
Alufohai said while the emphasis placed on the critical need for land reform and enhancement of government support for mortgage financing of houses that would make it possible for majority of Nigerians to acquire houses through long-term loans, thereby creating a veritable social and economic revolution, was welcomed, there was a need for implementation of more policies in the sector.
“This snail pace of reform belies government’s confidence in the diverse benefits that a reformed housing and mortgage financing system can bring to Nigerians: Affordable homes, a jobs boom, drastic expansion of the building materials industry, foreign investment and deepening of the financial sector,” he said.
Alufohai said expectations were high in the industry that 2013 would be a decisive year for fiscal consolidation and structural reforms.
According to him, it is critical for the Federal Government to prudently invest existing resources in critical infrastructure, while implementing reforms that will expand national income as well as private sources of financing infrastructure.
He said, “Oil export revenue still accounts for 92 per cent of government income. Even if MDAs spend 50 per cent of their current allocations on capital projects, Nigeria will still need additional resources to invest in the physical and social infrastructure required to drive economic growth and poverty alleviation.
“Nigeria has to make the strategic choice of either allocating its current income towards consumption or investing it in what will accelerate the diversification of our economy by attracting investment and creating new industries, jobs and new sources of taxes.
“The twin challenge is to cut recurrent expenditure, while boosting investment in infrastructure and intensifying reforms that stimulate private sector investment in diverse sectors of the economy.”
He added that the drought of Public-Private Partnership projects in key sectors was also disturbing.
Speaking on the housing deficit in the country, Alufohai said Nigeria was estimated to have 17 million-housing unit deficit and required over N30tn investment to close its infrastructure gap, not because the country was poor but because it had failed to develop the policies and institutions appropriate for boosting investment and the supply of housing and infrastructure.
He said NIQS, as a critical stakeholder in the construction and infrastructure sector, was interested in the extent to which the government’s fiscal measures and economic policy strategy as expressed in the 2013 budget would generate investment and jobs in housing and infrastructure construction.