2018 Budget: NIESV expresses fear over non-implementation

Bearing in mind the late passage of the 2018 budget and the fact that only 50 per cent of what was budgeted for the housing sector in 2017 was released, the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) has expressed fears that the sector might not receive up to 25 per cent of its allocation for 2018.

Citing so much deceit and under-development in the sector, Roland Abonta, president of the institute remarked that the time has come for the Federal Government, National Assembly and Stakeholders to sit and plan the housing programme, to achieve development in the sector.

“There is no master plan on ground for effective housing production and delivery in Nigeria. The problem of Nigeria has not been the issue of budgetary provision. The greatest problem we have is budget implementation. So whether they remove the budget meant for housing or not, we may not see any new thing in that sector.

“In the last two years, budget has been made for housing but nobody is accounting for what quantity has been added to the housing sector. It is like throwing a drop of water into the ocean. The president himself and our legislators must acknowledge that there is a serious need for stakeholders in the housing sector to sit down together and decide on a master plan for housing in Nigeria.”

Abonta insisted that government should stop using budget padding as excuse for its failure to develop the sector, stressing that Nigerians are tired of failed promises.

As a private practitioner, he noted that in the last financial year, they spent billions bidding for housing in the real estate sector only to be told that the same presidency has released only 50 per cent of the budget for 2017 and now with the budget signed in June, he stated that there is a tendency they won’t get up to 25 per cent of this year’s allocation.

According to the Estate Surveyor, it is not about the 2018 budget, as those are cheap political excuses by those in authority to shy away from responsibility to the people that put them there.

He highlighted that members of the institute were in Enugu for the management meeting to review policy issues affecting the organization, adding that part of the challenges militating against the profession was the infiltration of quacks. He lamented that government, public and private institutions have continued to patronize them to the detriment of the country.

That, notwithstanding, he revealed that, NIESV is poised to checking the trend and urged Nigerians to desist from patronizing them.

Credit: Independent