Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu has declared his commitment towards making befitting accommodation available to Lagosians, through pragmatic models that will incorporate private sector partnership, encourage local content and cut costs while also creating employment.
Sanwo-Olu, who made this known on Monday at the Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium, Secretariat, Alausa, during the World Habitat Day celebration themed: “Housing for All: A Better Urban Future”, stated that the thrust of this year’s event is a major policy objective of the fourth pillar of the present administration’s T.H.E.M.E.S agenda which is, Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy.
According to him, “The current and projected future population of Lagos State presents huge opportunities for investors in the housing sector and a compelling need for urban renewal”.
The Governor, speaking through his Deputy, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, noted that the pact with Lagosians as contained in the T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda is to ensure a significant reduction in the housing deficit, through the provision of affordable and decent housing, as well as to deepen the commitment to a Greater Lagos by advancing towards an enduring urban future founded on good, spatial and sectoral planning.
To accelerate the realisation of this objective, he stated that the current administration had returned the State to the National Housing Fund and appointed the Lagos Building Investment Company (LBIC) PLC as the sole mortgage provider to facilitate a reduction in the housing deficit in Lagos State.
He declared that the total housing stock in the State, by the end of this year, would have increased by 3004 units with the completion and delivery of additional seven housing schemes, comprising 2,268 units, as the government had completed and commissioned within the last 16 months, a number of housing schemes including Lateef Kayode Housing Estate, Igando; Courtland Villas, Lekki and Lekki Apartments, Ikate Elegushi.
He averred that the State remains committed to the full implementation of the rent-to-own policy aimed at achieving the objective of making housing affordable and accessible to low-income Lagosians, under which 1303 Lagosians had become homeowners in Oba Adeboruwa, Lateef Jakande and Epe Housing Schemes.
Earlier, the Honourable Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako remarked that the Lagos State Government has a clear understanding and remarkable acceptance of the multidimensional and complex nature of housing and is matching up to its successful delivery in cost-efficient, pragmatic and innovative manner.
He added that the State had evolved, institutionalised and implemented specific Policy Reforms and Initiatives that would continue to facilitate the achievement of the making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, in line with the dictates of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 11.
Salako maintained that the State had accorded urban planning and development the deserved attention as avenues for improving the physical environment of Lagos State and the living conditions of its people.
He revealed that the State Government has extended Planning Permits to Non-Schemed Areas by providing Development Guide Plans for Excised Villages to ensure orderly and sustainable development, stressing that the Government has also ensured wider coverage of Physical Planning and Urban Development Control to areas that were hitherto placed under embargo such as Ajido Badagry (Recently Released Military Acquisition), FAAN Acquisition, Isolo, LASU Acquisition, Ojo and Isashi Waterworks Acquisition, among others.
The Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Nureni Ayinde Akinsanya gave an assurance that the legislature will continue to give the necessary support to move the State forward, while Chairman of the Committee on Housing, Mr. Bisi Yusuf solicited for an inter-agency collaboration for the delivery of housing for all.
