The Obasanjo reforms:
Date
2009
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abuja: Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation Production, Publications and Documentation Dept. Radio House,
Abstract
Obasanjo reforms; Housing sector; Building a new modern Nigeria
Description
The rise in the shortage of housing particularly urban housing revealed the failure of the housing strategies hitherto employed, including the 1991 housing policy. A diagnostic study by experts attributed the problem to the inadequacies characteristic of the housing delivery system; particularly the weak housing financing method occasioned by the reliance on depository arrangements particularly the NHF; the lack of robust mortgage finance and the absence of mortgage friendly legislation (or the existence of unfriendly ones like the restrictions on mortgage transactions imposed by the Land Use Act of 1978 such as the cumbersome land titling process and the requirement of a State Governor's consent for a mortgage transaction). As a result of the foregoing lapses, the Obasanjo Administration introduced the current Policy on Urban Development and Housing forthe country in 2002. The policy is essentially a product of the Federal Government White Papers on the reports of two committees it had set up to address the problems of housing in Nigeria: the Presidential Committee on Urban Development and Housing under Governor Peter Odiii of Rivers State in 2001 and the Panel on the Merger of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and Federal Mortgage Finance Limited in 2000