Dangiwa: FG Working on Ways to Curtail Building Collapses

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mr Ahmed Dangiwa, has assured that the federal government will work will all stakeholders to ensure an end to the incessant building collapses in the country.

Dangiwa, who spoke when he received members of the Nigeria Institute of Architects (NIA) in his office, therefore sought the cooperation of all the professionals in the sector to proffer the needed solutions.

Promising that the ministry would look into the national challenge, he explained that with the collective inputs of the professionals in the built environment and state commissioners of housing, the ministry will come up with policies on how to curtail the menace.

According to him, the ministry is being positioned to function optimally in the delivery of housing to Nigerians.

” We are positioning the ministry to perform optimally to function as the organ that can provide policy directions to housing sector,”  the minister remarked.

He mentioned that most of the housing policies were under review in order to ensure that they are in tandem with current realities to create job opportunities for Nigerians.

The minister also noted that reviewing these policies would create enabling environment that could lead to economic growth, adding that it would be a catalyst for job creation and lifting Nigerians out of poverty.

Speaking earlier, the President of NIA,  Enyi Ben-Eboh, listed areas impeding the practice of architecture in Nigeria which he urged the minster to look into.

The include regulating the influx of building materials by working with Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to create a unit that will solely deal on building materials coming into the country.

He also called a review of the National Housing Policy in a way that it would be beneficial to architects, coming up with policies that will make funding for housing on the ‘first line of charge’ as well as a policy to regulate the activities of  private developers in Nigeria.