Housing is one of the basic needs and major problems of man. To help in overcoming this challenge, federal and state governments usually have some interventions. Biola Azeez looks at the housing challenge in Kwara State and the steps being taken by the government to address the problem.

WITH the rising cost of putting up a house, getting a befitting shelter has become a pipe dream for many. To enable people of Kwara State to live their dream of owning befitting homes, the state government has re-engineered the Kwara State Housing Corporation and given it a mandate of delivering affordable and befitting houses to the majority of the citizens of the state.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on why housing schemes usually failed, the General Manager of Kwara State Housing Corporation (KWHC), Architect Salihu Sulaiman, said a lot of factors were not put into consideration before setting up the various housing schemes.

"Federal Housing Authority made some housing schemes in the state during the Shagari regime in the 1980s. There are some factors to be considered like culture, religion or personal preference before setting up a housing scheme in an area. You should even think of women factors. Yes, women should be considered. The way Hausa/Fulani people build houses is peculiar and different from how Igbo build theirs or even the South-West people. The FG just provided without considering all these factors.

"Also, if a state is not in good terms with the government at the centre and a land is given by the state government in the bush and far away from the people or social facilities and design, it may be abandoned or fail."

Sulaiman, who said government could provide houses like private developers, added that, "but some people, allottees do not understand how the scheme works. They don't pay till now. The houses are not free. The developers must source for loans and try to do more of the houses. Also, some developers who are not well monitored can be difficult to manage. So, the operators of housing schemes need to embark on strict and thorough investigations of the background and experiences of private developers to forestall housing failure."

Speaking on the activities of the KWHC and its plan to provide affordable housing to people of the state, the general manager said the corporation was the newest corporation to be established by the state government.

"Before now, there existed a housing corporation for over 30 years, which got defunct, and got merged with Kwara Investment Company, to form Kwara Investment and Property Company. Now, because of the deficit in housing sector generally, we have 17 million deficit in housing delivery in Nigeria and to fund that, we need several trillions of naira.

"The state government in its wisdom decided to establish Kwara State Housing Corporation through an enactment of a law in 2009. The management came on board early in 2010.

"KWHC is charged with the broad charter of delivering or developing housing and to improve on the delivery of housing that had been done before this time. Before this time, since the creation of Kwara State about 20 years ago, altogether we had about 3,000 houses delivered by federal, state and local governments. So, the idea of the corporation is to fast-track the development of housing and reduce the deficit in housing delivery. KWHC is a direct head-on approach to beat the challenge of housing development."

Talking on the way to go about the task at hand, he said, "We have two approaches to go about achieving the focus. First is through public private partnership. The government will provide land and some infrastructure, while the private partner will come in with their fund. Here, government will ensure the houses are affordable and sustainable to address low and middle income earners.

"If you look at the population of the state which is put at about three million and you want to address 10 per cent of the population, which is 300,000 people and to house about 10 people per household, you are looking at about 30,000 homes to really bring down the deficit of housing in Kwara. This is the challenge KWHC is tackling head-on."

Speaking on the existing housing estates, he said, "There are existing estates owned by the state government. It's also under the purview of the corporation to maintain and upgrade where necessary. And those ones that had not been fully sold, we sell them and recoup the money into coffers of the government. They are at Mandate I and II, Irewolede Housing Estate, Ilorin; Offa Mandate Estate, Omu Aran, Kaiama and Shonga areas of the state. The state government also plans to do more housing in rural areas to cater for retirees and other people that would be retiring into their native rural areas of the state, to upgrade the standard of the local administration. This will also help address and reduce rural urban migration or explosion expected in the mega cities.

"Some local governments like Ilorin South, Moro and Asa are already taking a plunge off the spill from the Ilorin capital. For instance, Unilorin School of Basic Studies in rural area of Fufu. It's good to have a housing scheme around there. Also housing scheme will be designed for KWASU in Malete to really decongest the city."

He assured that the svheme would be affordable to the people. According to him, "KWHC intends to deliver the housing competitively with the private developers who are businessmen. So, there's a strategy to drive down the cost of delivering the houses. For instance, we are likely to have fabrication workshop, where we will have the building components being fabricated such as blocks, bricks, tiles and those components that we can really make by ourselves."

On the constraints of the agency, he said, "We are still young; we are just about two years old. We are trying to understand the need of the people. We want to deliver housing that people will buy into and not a housing programme that will fail like that of the FG in the past. So, we need to understand the culture of the people, their pockets, their location, psyche etc. It's not really a constraint, but we are trying to understand the need of the people, the marketability of the product we want to deliver. Again, with the need to build on land, the land administration in the state is a challenge. Identifying impeccable private developers has also been a challenge. Going through the accreditation to know those that can deliver good housing to our people is a major area of concern, not constraint really, but it can take time."

Speaking on the relationship between the corporation and the Bureau of Lands, he said, "We are two babies of the same parents. Each is doing its own bit in service delivery. We are complementing each other. The bureau gives us the land, its cost and probably subsidise it, especially for the social housing aside commercial housing where they charge a premium."

Sulaiman added that the agency had a provision for low income earners, "We are to provide for all categories of people; low, middle and high income earners. But the particular focus is the low income earners with social housing. And this is not for civil servants alone. We are even looking at using cooperative societies, NURTW and other associations. One of the major problems of housing is that when you want to sell a house, you want your money back because it's a revolving thing so that you can remain in business and produce more. So, we need the formal sector, where you can access the payment plan in two years or three years time. Even if we want to give a mortgage, you must be a contributor to a certain scheme. We are looking into having either two or three bedroom expandable bungalow. For instance, Lateef Jakande delivered houses that the exterior were not plastered for the low income earners, we can modify that by having houses that are expandable. The owner can expand the house on his own when the family increases in number. What is most important is you have a house you can call your own."

Speaking in a similar vein, the Special Assistant to Kwara State governor on Housing and Urban Matters, Alhaji Abiodun Baraje, expatiated on the housing projection of the state government. "We have a target of delivering 6,000 houses before the end of this administration. Within the next 12 months, we have the intention to conclude at least a partnership arrangement with minimum of five developers. It's within the policy thrust of the present administration in the state to do that. An average developer delivers about 500 houses, minus what the Housing Corporation is going to do on its own. We are talking about 2,000 houses per annum. I tell you, this number is achievable.