Text Delivered By H.E, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN At The Commissioning Of Woodhill Estate Under Akacare Cooperatives, And Flag-Off Of Cooperative Housing Development, Kuje, FCT, Abuja

Welcome one and all to the commissioning of Woodhill Estate of AKACARE Cooperative Housing Scheme and the flag-off of our cooperative housing initiative, one of the series that will happen in each of the six (6) geo-political zones of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory.

One of the NEXT LEVEL commitments of the Federal Government of Nigeria as declared by President Buhari at the ministerial retreat held in September 2019, is to deepen access of Nigerians to affordable housing and consumer credit.

This is a mandate item of the housing sector of the Ministry of Works and Housing; as the policymaking arm of government, and we have assigned the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) a parastatal of the Ministry of Works and Housing, the implementation responsibility for executing our policy of PARTNERSHIPS with cooperatives.

For those who may wonder, why cooperatives? The answer is simple.

By definition, co-operatives are "an autonomous association of persons united VOLUNTARILY to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise.”

The key word in that definition is the "voluntary" nature of cooperatives, and this is critical in the formulation of our policy of partnerships with cooperatives as a means of overcoming the problems of "Acceptability" and affordability that stand in the way of access to housing.

This is important because our experiences, our investigations and our observations reveal starkly that there are hundreds of thousands of empty and unoccupied houses in major cities across Nigeria.

They are empty and unoccupied because they are either over-built, in being too big, or under-built in being too small and therefore not acceptable to those who need them, because in many instances no consultation took place between the builders and the consumers they built for.

This is why we are undertaking a pilot scheme based on our studies to build in 34 states who provided land, what the people we consulted said they will find acceptable.

Because of the lack of consultation and acceptability problem, the problem of affordability creeps in.

Our policy development team finds the voluntary nature of cooperatives very useful because members will be expected to design and build according to their needs and their income, as they find affordable.

Co-operatives have traditionally proved to be successful in areas like transportation, agriculture, trade and commerce, market associations and amongst large groups in the informal sector.

It is these large members of the informal sector that we seek to reach, scale up constructions of houses and the multiplier effects on the economy for cottage industries who make building materials like paint, doors, roofing materials, nails, and electrical fittings to mention a few.

The scale of construction by voluntary associations is expected to ramp up employment and income for artisans who will build houses. This will be our contribution to President Buhari’s commitment to raise a hundred million out of poverty in a decade.

As in other sectors, when cooperatives have been successful, we can point to modest successes of partnerships by FMBN with some cooperatives in the formal sector that currently has 52 housing projects under construction to deliver 4,624 units in 2020.

It is this number, that the policy we flag-off today seeks to multiply in many fold by unleashing the power of cooperatives and empower their voluntary will to act together in pursuit of the common desire to access housing and credit.

In order to be eligible, cooperatives must be registered, they must acquire their own land, get title to it, seek and obtain a building permit from the governments of the respective states where their land is located.

This last requirement is instructive because it seeks to eliminate incidents of unapproved buildings and slums which governments later seek to demolish.

All the state government agencies in charge of land have been duly briefed at the National Council launch meeting held in Abuja on November 7th 2019.

The Mandate and the role of the FMBN is to then provide construction funding to the cooperatives to build the houses, and to provide mortgage finance to the individual members to buy the house and pay back in instalments at a rate not exceeding 10% per annum.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the sum and substance of the policy and partnerships that bring us to Kuje, in the FCT today because AKACARE cooperative has embraced this NEXT LEVEL initiative to deepen access to housing and consumer credit.

It is therefore my honour and pleasure to flag off this cooperative partnership in the hope that it will quickly spread to other states in this Geo political zone.

As every cooperative chooses what it desires and can afford, the FMBN, representing the Federal Government of Nigeria will be your partner, providing financial support to enable you to act voluntarily to choose and build what you accept and your income can afford.

On behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Government of Nigeria, I commission this Housing Estate and flag off this co-operative development away from poverty and towards common prosperity.

Thank You.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Honourable Minister of Works and Housing

Address Delivered By H.E Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN At The 8th Meeting Of The National Council On Lands, Housing & Urban Development

On behalf of the Minister of State, the Permanent Secretary, Directors, Heads of our various parastatals and staff of the Ministry of Works and Housing, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to this year’s National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

For the record and for information basis, it is important to mention that the National Council offers a platform of convergence for representatives of the federal government , for those of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to consider policy, agree programmes, form consensus about how life changing and beneficial policies, programmes and projects can be implemented not only by the federal government alone, but by all state governments and the FCT.

This is important in order to achieve wholesome and widespread delivery, access to as many as possible, and impact on an equitable scale.

While I welcome returning commissioners in some states, I am mindful of the changes that the general elections have brought in some states and therefore the change of personnel that have come with them.

I also therefore welcome very enthusiastically new members of the council and assure them of our commitment to assist them in achieving their developmental objectives for their state.

Let me point out that of all the National Councils that I know, I cannot recall easily any council for which the need for federal government and state government collaboration is so pivotal and defining for success like this Council for Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

This is due to many reasons, not the least of which is the Land Use Act, which vests control of lands in the territory of each state in the governor; and in minister of the Federal capital Territory (FCT) in the case of the FCT.

Added to this is the fact that the Supreme Court has decided since 2003, that urban planning and development control is the sole responsibility of the state governments in their territory, and that of the FCT in Abuja (34 states).

In other words, the use of land, whether for a house, office, market, school, hospital, petrol filling station or any other purpose is a matter solely for the state government.

Nevertheless, Housing is a social, developmental and economic objective of the federal government who cannot own land, unless allocated by the state government, and who cannot build unless urban planning department of states approve the development (Gwagwalada).

It is the foundation for that cooperation that we seek to continuously strengthen at each year’s national council meeting and then follow up with each state on a case by case basis.

The theme for this year’s meeting is  “Housing Development and Consumer Credit as Strategies for National Prosperity”, and it is informed by recent developments in the economy and also by the commitment made by the federal government in its Next Level Agenda.

Permit me to recall that on the 12th June 2019, the President Muhammadu Buhari, in his address at Eagle Square, committed to lifting one hundred million people out of poverty. This is what Mr President said:

“China and Indonesia succeeded under authoritarian regimes. India succeeded in a democratic setting. We can do it. With leadership and a sense of purpose, we can lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.”

Since Mr. President made this progressive, ambitious and forward looking commitment, not a few have agonised about how. Some have divided the number of people by the number of years and wonder how 10 million people will come out of poverty, every year.

To yet another group, they understood it only in terms of employment.

I do not.

I understand it is a combination of employment, access to opportunities, value asset renewal, increase in income for those already employed, access to nutrition, freedom from disease, access to shelter and many more life enhancing opportunities that move people from want and poverty to access and prosperity.

This Council meeting emphasizes the need for the understanding that poor people are indigenes of the 36 states and FCT and it will require more than Mr President alone to achieve the commitment.

The impact of prosperity will be felt in the states and the governors and their commissioners have a role to play and they are already playing it, as I will show.

So too the Legislators at National and state levels.

However, let me point out that after that statement of June 12, which I choose to call the June 12 Charter for Prosperity, Mr President at the Retreat Preceding the inauguration of Ministers on the 21st day of August 2019 identified the following areas of focus for the administration over the term of four years namely:

i.   Agriculture
ii.  Health
iii. Education
iv. Energy (Petroleum products); and
v.  Power
vi. Security
vii. Infrastructure
viii. Housing and Consumer Credit

Although all areas listed have a direct impact on poverty, improvement of quality of life, cost of living and prosperity, the focal areas for the Ministry of Works and Housing are infrastructure, generally for works, and Housing and consumer credit for the Ministry of Housing.

Whenever I visit the sites of the pilot National Housing project being undertaken across the 34 States who provided land, I see an ecosystem of commerce, employment and entrepreneurship.

From the contractor/construction company who wins the bid to the labourers on site who earn N3000 a day, (N18, 000 a week (for six days) and approximately N72,000 a month) ; to the owner of the concrete mixer I met in Oyo state who charges N20,000 a day: to suppliers and vendors of building materials, and employees of companies that manufacture paint, tiles, roofing materials, the federal government, and state government collaboration provided a step up towards the ladder of prosperity.

On each site, there were averagely at least 1000 people employed.

Therefore if we could have more sites per state and all states involved, clearly many more people will get an opportunity to work, to supply, to produce and to earn an income. This is a step on to the ladder of prosperity and a big contribution to the achievement of the June 12 Charter of Prosperity.

This is why we have resolved to use cooperatives as the vehicle to achieve more construction in many states in order to expand the scale of construction, and therefore maximize the scale of opportunities.

The Federal Mortgage Bank, which is our parastatal for providing construction and acquisition finance has been designated as the focal agency to drive this initiative and they will be providing a detailed presentation to the council shortly after my address.

What we see is that cooperatives have been successful in transportation, agriculture, trades and markets and among artisans. We think it can be successful in delivering large scale affordable housing if cooperatives acquire their own land, design what they want to build, get state urban planning approval, and federal government gives them, through the Federal Mortgage Bank, loans to construct and loans to members to buy.

This is our broad vision for enabling access to housing and consumer credit (loans) through construction.

Other policies and programmes are the issuance of backlog of certificates of occupancy and consent to land transactions ( 3,000) and (1,708) respectively.

These instruments strengthen and support access to credit and also contribute to improving value of land by 30%-40% and this asset value appreciation is a contribution towards the prosperity ladder.

Site and Service Schemes: Where Government provides roads and other infrastructure to land, improves the value of land by 30%-40% and this asset value appreciation is a contribution towards prosperity .

Slum Upgrade Projects: also being undertaken through the Urban Development department of the Ministry are other ways by which we  improve quality of life and move people out of poverty. Every completed project not only renews the environment, replaces squalor with service, but it also improves the rental income to house owners and capital value of their property.

While I urge you all to listen attentively to the presentation by Architect Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, the Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank when he presents the plan on cooperatives, I urge you all to start thinking about :

Cooperatives and how they can register, own lands, contribute to the National Housing Fund and benefit.

How many cooperatives in your states can qualify and what you can do to help them

How to keep proper data and records of cooperatives and also the number of people employed on each site when work commences

How in your states you can use site and service schemes, prompt issuance of certificate of occupancy and consent to land transaction to drive poverty to the rear and propel people towards prosperity.

I have no doubt in my mind that the vision is achievable and surpassable, the building blocks for achieving it are already in place, and it is for all states and federal government, with the private sector to commit to work on the road to prosperity, through housing delivery, and access to credit on a massive scale.

Thank you for listening and I hope we have very faithful deliberations.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Minister of Works and Housing