From Blessing Douglas, Port Harcourt
A Port Harcourt based real estate investor, Mr Ace China has commended the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara for his administration’s investment on 20,000 housing project in the state.
Recalled that to ensure development, the governor recently, signed a Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with a private investor to address the provision of 20,000 units of affordable houses in the state.
Speaking after receiving an award at the Mayor Dmoma Award, held in Port Harcourt, Mr China popularly known as ‘Mayor of Housing’, said governor Fubara’s moves to construct the 20000 housing project, will contribute to solving the 28 million housing deficit in Nigeria.
He said: “Direct building of houses by government has never worked; and this one is not government building houses directly. What I am excited about is the public private partnership (PPP) approach Gov Sim Fubara has used.
“Even the PPP is not enough. The greatest booster to solving the 28 million housing deficit in Nigeria is an enabling environment in the sector.
“I am quite elated because when he announced his social housing policy on his inauguration day (May 29, 2023) I was one of the first persons to react and commend him. He has now activated the necessary policy action to implement it. We have been curiously and eagerly waiting for how it would be implemented.”
He tackled the federal government for sourcing investors abroad while there are experts who can bring in their wealth of knowledge to the development of the country.
“In fact, the way President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is going around the globe looking for investors, it shows that the government leaders do not know that we have a large army of investors already in the country. These home-based investors face huge huddles in most of the sectors including in housing.
“You will not imagine the setbacks and bureaucratic bottlenecks we face in starting a construction effort. Most times, those huddles lead to higher costs for the eventual houses because every huddle you overcome costs you more money and you have to recover the cost.
“When the ease of doing business (EODB), ease of documentation, ease of layout, ease of allocation, and tax incentives are given to well-known developers like us, believe you me, the result will be nothing short of a boom in the property and housing sector.
“We (The Construction & Housing Mayor Limited) are an example of those people managing to crawl against the tide, when the govt turns the tide in our favour, we will not only fly, we will do wonders.
