Abuja REDAN To Engage Govts Over Housing Provision

Poised to aid mass housing development for low-income Nigerians, the Real Estate Developers Association (REDAN), Abuja chapter, has pledged to drive constructive engagements with government at all levels.

The chapter’s newly elected chairman, Mr. Andrew Elerewe, revealed this plan recently in Abuja, saying the time had come for governments to see its association and members as strategic partners rather than a group of people, who are just interested in making money alone.

“The first thing I will drive is to change governments’ perception about us as developers. We would work towards assisting the government to see us as strategic partners, and just people who are just interested in making profit.”

According to him, both the association and the government have the same goal, which to provide affordable homes for the people, adding that his members were set to contribute their quota towards achieving this goal.

“Take for instance Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, they have been able to transform their cities through real estate which is being driven by the private sector. So, they can’t take us for granted. It is important that they change that perception”, Elerewe said.

He also said he would tackle dearth of construction finance, plaguing the industry by encouraging cohesion and partnership among its members, saying that merger and strategic partnership were keys to solving the problem of funds all over the world.

Speaking on its expectation from the incoming governments both at the federal and state level, Elerewe said: “I think our expectations are very high, especially from the incoming government. We want a government more responsive towards housing that would be able to solve the plethora of issues that we have.

“We have quite a number of them but the good news is that they are all resolvable. We all need to come to the table and they also need to carry us along in whatever policies they need to take”, he added.

Credit: Independent