For many Nigerians, access to decent and affordable housing and job creation remains a critical challenge. The housing challenge is especially exacerbated by the rise in rural-urban migration, which continues to stretch the limited public infrastructure in urban centres.
The depth of the challenge is already clear. According to the International Human Rights Commission IHRC, more than 28 million Nigerians lack access to decent and affordable housing, and this is in tandem with the estimates of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), which projects that Nigeria requires at least 28 million housing units to close the Housing gap.
Despite the enormity of the housing challenge, there is a lot that suggests Nigeria can turn the tide around, close the housing deficit and steadily provide for the country’s needs.
One of such suggestions is to assist real estate developers, like Andrew Lucky Elerewe who is embarking on 500 thousand homes in Africa, which will lead to over 5 million jobs by 2038.
Andrew Elerewe, known as ANDY AIBEN, owns a construction company rated among the first contemporary Nigerian Construction Company owners to have branches in over 6 African countries.
In an interview, he said “The labor that’s involved in developing a thousand homes is going to create 5 million jobs because in every house you will need 5 workforces to deliver these houses. That’s 5 million jobs that are going to be created, and that’s why we are very passionate about training.”
Andrew founded AIBEN Group in 2011 to develop real estate in Africa. In 2020, he created a new mission for the company to develop 500 thousand homes until 2035.
In view of his plan in the housing sector in providing jobs and accommodation, there’s need for the government to support such individuals to invest those resources in Nigeria to expand our housing and job creations, just like with Dangote refineries.
The pan-African real estate company has an unspecified net worth. In Nigeria alone, the company is constructing or negotiating the purchase of properties worth about $20 million.
It has subsidiaries in five African countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo and Rwanda. The said real estate developer, by reports has implemented major projects in Nigeria and The Ghana.
In 2021, Lagos state government entered into a joint partnership with his company to develop and transform 40 hectares of swampy and inaccessible land into quality housing, and also commit $30 billion in three years for the housing project, Biltmore Garden City, in Lagos.
According to online sources, The project is tagged Biltmore Garden City and it’s his conviction that the project will not only generate employment but equally deplete the huge housing deficit in the country.
The Nigerian born businessman with his team of professionals has left footprints that will stay forever in Lagos state, the Southern part of Nigeria. They transformed the inaccessible area into a luxury masterpiece called the Garden City while delivering the project on time.
