Former Managing Director of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company, Professor Charles Inyangete, says Nigeria needs 363 billion dollars, about N111.08 trillion to meet current housing deficits in the country.

 Speaking at a Facility Management forum in Abuja,he stated that N3.65 trillion is required to increase housing stock by 730,000 units annually. This, according to him would go a long way to forestall the housing crisis in the country in the next couple of years,

He added the country currently had a housing stock of 21 million units, adding that going by the current growth rate in Nigeria, there would be a significant housing deficit unless efforts are geared towards addressing the gap.

According to Prof. Inyangete, the country  is faced with poor infrastructure not only in the area of inadequate housing, but also in access to electricity and internet facility and poor road network.

In his words “Only 25 per cent of our population has access to electricity; 51 per cent of Nigerians have access to internet; while only 18 per cent of Nigerian roads are paved. These poor infrastructures pose serious negative ramifications for the country. Specifically, the poor infrastructure facility is reducing national economic growth by two per cent and business productivity by 40 per cent,” he said.

To this end, he said facility managers had a crucial role to play in addressing these challenges.

He said that  professionals were expected to enhance their contribution to the sustainable cities agenda and also develop tools for the purpose of monitoring the performance of facilitie

He noted that efforts should be geared towards opening the capital market to enable facility managers raise fund seamlessly, as this would deepen their contribution to building sustainable cities.

He added that “Government cannot do it alone. There is increasing need for Public private partnership to address Nigeria’s economic growth.”