Ms Amal Pepple, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, has said that Nigeria needs a National Housing and Urban Development Policy to achieve set goals in mass housing delivery.
Pepple made the statement on Tuesday in Abuja at the Ministerial Platform in commemoration of the National Democracy Day 2012 and anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
She said that the policies, when passed into law, would ensure that Nigerians owned or had access to affordable houses.
The two policies were reviewed at the National Stakeholders' Validation Workshop and the first National Council of Lands and Housing held in December 2011.
Pepple said? that the draft policies, which were considered by the Economic Management and Implementation Team and the National Economic Council would soon be approved by the Federal Executive Council.
She noted that the housing sector, through the policies if approved, could contribute not less than 20 per cent to the gross domestic product of the country by 2020.
According to her, the housing sector has the potential to generate employment, increase productivity, raise standard of living of the populace and alleviate poverty.
She said the sector employed approximately 10 per cent of the labour force worldwide.
“Empirical evidence has shown that the construction of one bedroom bungalow requires the services of 50 persons, while 76 different people will be required to build just a two bedroom bungalow.
“This means that for 1,000 housing units of two bedroom bungalow, 76,000 jobs will be created. ’’
The minister said that? if 1,000 housing units of two bedroom bungalows were built annually in each of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, a total of 2,812,00 jobs would be created on an annual basis.
She said that the ministry built a total of 26,061 housing units from 2011 to date in the states and the? Federal Capital Territory while 156,366 people benefited from the housing scheme.
She added that 1,873 housing units were completed while 24,188 were under construction.
The ministry’s achievements, she said, were made possible with the collaboration of the Federal Mortgage Bank, the Federal Housing Authority and the Public Private Partnership Contractor Finance Initiative.
Pepple noted that standards and specifications would be ensured as part of the ministry's transformation agenda as close supervision and monitoring would be ensured at sites.
The Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, said that the platform was to ensure that Nigerians were informed and carried along in government programmes.
He promised that the present federal cabinet would work together to ensure rapid development of infrastructure in the country.
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