PROPERTY TRANSACTION GUIDE

Housing Authority Law May Be Amended
By Michael Simire Houses & Homes Editor

Independent, Monday, 22nd June 2009

The law establishing the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) is to be reviewed to remove existing constraints and provide it more leverage to deliver on its mandate.

FHA Managing Director, Mr. Terver Gemade, who made this known recently in Lagos, said consultations were on between the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development and the National Assembly on the review.

He said many of the provisions of the current law were obsolete and would need to be amended to enable the authority cope with the challenges of today's housing industry.

Gemade, who was addressing staff of the South-West Zonal Office of the authority in Lagos, said the organisation's Public Private Partnership (PPP) unit would soon be restructured to enable it accelerate the authority's housing delivery programme.

Stressing that the PPP platform was one of the major planks through which his team hoped to deliver houses, he said the unit would need to be strengthened to enable it cope with the heavy demands that would be made of it in the coming months.

The FHA chief executive said PPP would get greater attention than direct construction but that the authority would use all delivery models available in its efforts to build more houses in all parts of the country.

According to him, the challenge before the authority is great considering that the government expects a minimum of 10 million new houses under the Vision 20:2020 programme.

This, he said, called for hardwork on the part of the staff who he said were the major assets of the authority.

Gemade said all eyes were on the FHA to deliver on its mandate and enjoined the workers to brace up to the challenges ahead. He said the new management would soon look into all outstanding promotions especially for staff on Grade Level 14 to 17, and urged those concerned to exercise patience.

Established by Decree No. 40 of 1973 (now CAP 136 of the Laws of the Federation 1990), the FHA commenced operations in 1976.

By a tripartite Performance Agreement executed in 1992 with the Federal Government represented by the then Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMW&H), and Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC) now Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the FHA became a partially commercialised public enterprise.

Besides Decree 40 of 1973 and the 1992 Performance Agreement, the authority's other governing laws include the National Housing Policy document of 1991 and the Bureau of Public Enterprises Act No. 78 of 1993.

Under the FHA Act CAP 136 Laws of the Federation 1990, the body is broadly responsible for proposing and implementing the Federal Government's housing programmes. It does this by preparing and submitting from time to time proposals for National Housing Programmes to the Federal Government; and making recommendations to governments on such aspects of Urban and Regional Planning, Electricity, Sewage and Water Development as may be relevant to successful execution of housing programmes approved by government.

By the 1991 National Housing Policy, FHA's mandate were amended/elaborated upon to comprise the development of real estates on commercial and profitable basis in all states of the federation; provision of sites and service scheme for all income groups with special emphasis on low income groups in major cities of the country; and, provision of low income houses in all states and Federal Capital Territory from funds allocated by Federal Government.

The Performance Agreement with the TCPC now (BPE) spelt out the purpose of commercialising the authority, which clearly identified and specified the overall mission, business strategies and the actions to be taken in order to achieve the true intentions of government

A couple of years ago, the authority unveiled a new logo and restrategised by adopting the Social Housing Framework.

According to sources close to the organisation, the policy objectives for the Nigerian social housing drive, inherent in the new mandate of FHA, include: the provision of a sustainable approach for reducing the huge housing deficit (estimated at about 12 million); demonstrating the political will of government to ensure provision of decent housing as a social responsibility to its citizenry; encouraging and support end-user driven initiatives in housing delivery such as use of housing cooperatives; facilitating access to funding from social housing financiers and multilateral agencies; promote and support public - private sector partnership in social housing deliver; and contributing to urban regeneration/ redevelopment and slum upgrades.