The Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has decried the impact of building collapses across the country, saying that punitive measures will be meted to defaulters of building codes.
Disclosing this on Monday, Director, Planning Research and Statistics Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Mohammed Bala, noted that efforts were on to curb the menace.
He made this disclosure in Gombe at the opening of a five-day 13th meeting of National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development, with the theme ‘Housing the future: Affordable housing for economic growth climate resilience and urban development’.
According to him, FG is working assidiously to ensure that the issue is minimised following the impact on lives.
He explained, “The council is the highest body in policy making for the lands, housing and urban development. We had asked for memos to be submitted after three months ago on concern around housing development in the country.
“We got over 60 organisations responded to the various topics on the themes we forwarded to them provide some inputs on how to resolve or improve the issue of the housing sector and there are eight areas we gave.”
Lamenting the incessant building collapse, Bala said, “Housing, building collapse is not only about the house but about the life of the people. If you care about the lives of the people you must consider the issue of collapse. I have never seen instances where buildings collapse and you don’t lose property and lives or people sustain injuries. The problem of building collapse is a very serious issue Mr President has seriously challenged the issue of building collapse, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, even set up a committee on the issue of building code.”
Speaking further Bala continued saying, “They have made presentations and you have seen in our programme that we have two sessions where issues of building collapse not only the memo, technical technical team but experts have been invited to make presentations on that issue it will be deliberated, discussed and reviewed and policies will be taken that will affect the entire country of Nigeria. In 2023, 2024 we had the one in Jos, Lagos, Abuja there are a lot of buildings that collapsed. The one reported by the media is the one we know but it’s happening everyday resulting from natural causes, inability of adhering building codes, use of substandard products. The Federal Government is trying to resolve it to ensure this thing is minimised.”
“The honourable Minister has been emphasising on sanctions, in every meeting. Recently the tribunal for this housing was inaugurated and he expressed happiness that the tribunal was instituted and he said there should not be undue consideration to anyone who violates any code, law should be sanctioned,” he added.
On his part, Gombe State Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transportation Dr Usman Kallamu, disclosed that the gathering would afford stakeholders opportunity to recognise significant importance of affordable housing in driving economic growth.
“Mitigating climate change and fostering sustainable urban development. It is pertinent to note that our collective goal is to provide opportunity for every individual to have access to safe, decent and affordable housing.”
Speaking on effort of the state government in the actualisation of renewed hope housing agenda, Gombe in the fiscal year 2024 allocated huge amount of money for infrastructural development especially in housing units through separate partnerships with the North-East Development Commission and the Family Home Funds Limited. This is in line with one of the priority pillars of Gombe State Development Plan 2020-2030 to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation.”
