We Have Made People Landlords
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Enugu State Housing Corporation, Chief Ikeje Asogwa, in this interview with By CHARLES KUMOLU speaks on how the corporation is tackling the housing challenges in the state.Enugucorp-pixHOW would you assess the housing problem in Enugu metropolis and to what extent do you think the state government has tried to resolve the problem?
What we have done is to just keep building. Building and building. As I speak to you today, Enugu is among the states in the country that you can visit and see already built houses still available for sale at very affordable prices. Presently, we have close to 60 flats unsold and these flats go for as low as N4.9million for a two bedroom flat. We sold our three bedroom flats for for as low as N7million.
What was the situation when you came on board and how have you been able to improve on what you met?
We started on a very rough note because we had challenges. We met a system that was almost in decay and we had to put in our best to revive the housing sector.
We had to reconceptualise plans to start building and developing new estates in our state and we thought it was wise to give preferential treatment to the middle and low income earners in the state So, we commenced the development of estates for all categories of people. We even built for the high income earners.
In the last seven years, we have been able to do a total number 748 housing units. We have been able to provide infrastructure in these estates and even in the estates that were existing before this administration.
Through the support of the state government, we have been able to construct in our different estates a total of 37 kilometers of asphalted roads. Most of these roads have already been marked. We have done 117 kilometers of drainage.
We have also constructed 53 culverts. We have built three bridges, we have done 11 water projects which includes the provision of under ground, surface and reservoir over-head water tanks. We have also been able to procure, install and energise 34 nos. 500KVA transformers in the different estates to boost electricity distribution. It has been a tedious task but we have been able to achieve it.
We have also put in a lot with respect to security. We have provided and built a lot of police posts and we on a monthly basis, provide imprest to run these police posts for the Nigerian Police to augment whatever they get and to be sure that all our estates are properly manned. That has helped a lot.
Security is very important because we have had a few challenges with respect to security. We faced various challenges before getting to this stage. The first basic challenge that we faced was that of funding. When we came in, there were no funds to execute any project. So, we had to start sourcing for funds from financial institutions by taking loans even though we have most of those loans fully paid up now.
It would have been better if we had some capital on ground to enable us start up the projects. The interest on the loans which we paid have eaten deep into our profit. It would have been a lot better if we hadn’t paid those interests because we would have reinvested the funds in developing more housing units.
Housing policy for the masses
It’s been difficult for us to develop a policy that one would say will make it easier for the masses to benefit from our projects but be that as it may, we have introduced payment on instalments to enable people pay for their houses.
There is a policy which we adopted from the state government and that is the monitisation policy. So, we have been able to assist the state government by accommodating some of the civil or public servants through this monetisation policy. That policy makes it easy so that you just make a down payment for as little as 10 per cent. In some cases depending on the category of the person we are dealing with, we give them as much as 10 years to pay up the balance.
The policy I was hoping that we would be able to adopt which would have made it a lot easier for our people to capitalise is obtainable in the western world; the policy of mortgage purchase. You will just make a little down payment even if it is five per cent or 10 and then you have to finish paying the rest in the next 20-25 or 30 years. It makes it a lot easier so that one doesn’t really have to worry on the effect of payment. But we are doing our best. The payment plan is really helping and a lot of people have benefited from it.
But do you think the present administration has done sufficiently well in the area of housing?
Extremely well because we have not just provided houses which I told you earlier rather, our supply has exceeded demand. We have gone out of our way to provide infrastructure. Basic amenities that complement the housing units. Talking about roads, drainages, culverts,street lights, provision of water and provision of electricity. All these things complement the houses that are being built because without them you cannot move into any of those houses and live. These facilities are being provided and they are there for everybody to see.
How did the state government manage or handle the issue of slum settlers after destroying where they were residing?
We took over one of the slummy areas in Enugu State some time ago and built the best estate in the South-eastern part of Nigeria. We paid the people that were ejected from the place compensation to enable them acquire new premises to live. We have also done it elsewhere; we had to eject people from a particular area because the place was supposed to be a highbrow area. We had to get them out of the place, relocate them and paid them compensation and everybody was happy. If you go there today, those places are no longer slums. You will see beautiful housing developments with all infrastructure put in place.
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