Pastor of the Royal House urges president to build 10,000 housing units

The president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has been advised to build at least 10, 000 housing units in every state.

According to Paster Bassey James of the Royal House of Faith, Lekki, this will create hundreds of employment opportunities, while increasing housing conditions in Nigeria.

"I want to appeal to President to look critically into this. Let me put this in perspec­tive. There was a time in this country when we had the administration in Lagos State, which delivered affordable mass housing. If the federal govern­ment is really serious about deliver­ing change, I want to see the administration dust up the template and use it to deliver mass housing across the country. Alhaji was able to do that and he created a lot of employment oppor­tunities in the building industry. The administration should take up this issue of mass housing development and declare it as a national emergency that must be prosecuted with the spirit.

He should push every state in Ni­geria to build a minimum of 10,000 housing units. He should turn the goodwill that ushered him into office into fervent support by corporate entities that produce building materi­als. The government can do this by implementing fiscal policies that would encourage these companies to crash the prices of these products needed to deliver mass housing. The multiplier effects would be enor­mous. In fact it would be a tsunami. Imagine a situation where could make the price of cement drop substantially; a situation where the government would negoti­ate with companies for the lowest prices like did in Lagos. Then companies handling hous­ing projects would be able to buy materials at the deeply discounted bulk price."

He also had some words of advice for the newly appointed Minister of Works, Power and Hous­ing.

"We have an extremely huge demand for affordable housing. In the last 27 to 30 years, we have not seen a clear in­dication of a housing programme in Nigeria. No new federal government housing estates have been built; there are no state housing estates again. So, we need a very robust and pragmatic approach to housing delivery to Nigerians."

READ: Pastor of the Royal House urges new minister to focus on affordable housing, more

Do you think President Buhari can deliver 10, 000 housing units in Nigeria?