‘How Federal Government Can Address Housing Deficit’

The chief executive officer of PENNEK Global, an estate developer, Dr. Kennedy Nnadi, has advised the federal government to provide land to property developers in the country to build houses to reduce the deficit in the country said to be around 17 million.

The PENNEK boss told reporters in Abuja, during its recent ‘Open House’ Programme that the deficit is caused by the expensive nature of land especially in Abuja, even as he tasked the government to also implement tax rebate and carry out effective administration to remove unnecessary bottlenecks.

He said “I feel there’s a way the government could go about it. One of the things that made that deficit possible is because land is very expensive. If the government can provide land for us developers then we can build on them and it will be a bit cheaper. Some other ways is to do a lot of tax rebates. It’s already a difficult challenge doing business here at the moment. If we have some tax rebate, then maybe we’ll get some prices of houses cheaper and then we can build a lot of it.”

He noted that the ‘Open House’ is a flagship project in Abuja, the first of its kind to build 85 units of houses and deliver to subscribers, which is already being done within a year, adding that “Our houses are very much affordable for the average guys.”

On the controversial Policy of Certificate of Occupancy initiated by the Federal Capital Territory, Nnadi said the matter is yet to be finalized stressing that his estate is already secured and will not be affected by the policy.

“This matter is still being discussed. I am not sure anything concrete has been reached, we are still discussing with the government. There is always a way to go around it. It is a good idea, so everyone will have their share but as a brand, the estate is already secured and we have our titled documents and we are going to transfer that to the subscribers,” he said.

He added that the government can provide the conducive environment by streamlining the administrative process. He said “I feel there’s a lot of government agencies to cater for or face when you are building. There’s a way we can do this in the same way we have Treasury Single Account (TSA). We should have just one government agency that should be able to say this is what needs to be done and just one stop shop where everything will be done.

“Secondly, the government needs to support developers. No country develops without the developers. Government may have an idea of what it wants to do but developers drive that vision and mission. So, the government can provide land, do the tax rebate and then try to protect assets and whatever we have done.