Director, Federal Department of Cooperatives, Idris Ali Sani, has stated explicitly that Nigeria would need N60 trillion to construct mass houses to deplete housing deficits in the country.

Sani stated this yesterday, during a summit in Abuja, explaining that there is a need for developers, the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and others to deploy local raw materials for the construction of homes for the people.

He said that for stakeholders to meet the demand and supply of houses, they must invest heavily in the development of local materials, saying this is the answer to the challenge of accommodation in many cities of the world, including Abuja, Lagos and others in Nigeria.

“If the federal and state governments want to build affordable houses, they should forget the importation of building materials from China and concentrate on local content.”

When it’s done, no country can compete with Nigeria in terms of constructing mass bungalows,” he said.

According to him, we can’t address the issue of Nigeria’s 20 million homes deficit with the way the stakeholders and governments are delivering 10,000 units yearly. This is grossly inadequate, and we have a long way to go to deplete the housing stocks.

The Convener, Dr Saheed K.Y. Adelakun, emphasised that though government agencies and others are in the forefront of delivering affordable houses for the people, their drive should be to cut costs and build the types that are in demand in the country.

“We are ready to bring critical stakeholders together to brainstorm and offer them opportunities to operate to reduce the cost of houses by 50 per cent. We need a savings system to provide the commodity to the citizens,” he said.