How has the private sector supported the government of Gov. Sanwo-Olu in the area of housing development?
That is very interesting. The 2 housing estates that were commissioned for Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s first year in office, the Lekki Apartment (120 units) and Courtland Villa (another 120 units) were both done by private developers. We also have about 240 units in the Badagry area of Lagos, where we have some 2 bedroom, beautiful bungalows that were built by Eco Stone Nigeria also. So we have the first of 240 units and another 240 units making about 500 units from the private sectors that have been delivered into Housing stock in Lagos through the Lagos State Ministry of Housing.
Year in, year out, those in the private sector often plead with the government to create an enabling environment for them to be able to do business and for them to be able to get registration of titles done faster
Yes. Gov. Sanwo-Olu has done a lot in that regard. Actually, when the administration came in we had over 7,000 files waiting for Governors Consent. The governor has given out those opportunities to members of the State Executive Council to help in signing those consent papers. It has actually improved right now.
In a couple of days, you are going to be seeing adverts in the newspaper from the Lagos State Land Bureau telling people officially that their Consent Papers are ready and that they should come in and pick it up. It’s like a Caveat Emptor. Most of the applications have been signed and after Due Diligence and ready for pick up. The government has actually improved on that. One other thing we are also improving on is the allocation of land to private developers. The only thing we want is for them to show us that they have the capacity to build and the financial capacity to do a lot of these projects. When we came in, we found out that in the Ministry of Housing, we had quite a number of Joint Venture Agreements with a lot of companies and till date, 80% of them are yet to deliver on those housing projects. We have given them Land, we have provided them an enabling environment to go ahead and do these things but they are not up to par in the delivery of these projects. Those are the challenges we are facing. We are ready to work with the private sector, we just need them to show us their financial capacity and other capacities they can bring on the table to help bridge the housing gap for us.
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