LCCI commends Buhari over housing fund bill

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for declining assent to National Housing Fund (NHF) Bill.

The chamber said the bill would have caused more problems for citizens.

Mr Muda Yusuf, the Director-General of LCCI, gave the commendation in Lagos.

President Buhari, had on April 2, declined assent to the National Housing Fund Bill alongside seven other bills passed by the National Assembly.

Yusuf said that the bill would have increased cost of building materials thus widening the country’s infrastructural deficit, led to increase in cost of doing business and inflict hardship on workers.

He said that what government should do was to evolve a mechanism that would reduce the cost of building materials to enable more Nigerians become empowered to construct buildings.

“Government should be more concerned on how to bring down the cost of steel, cement and make land easily accessible and affordable, and also promote the use of local materials for construction,” he said.

He urged the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) to evolve more innovative alternative and sustainable building materials for housing development.

The LCCI boss said that the use of local building materials would reduce the cost of construction, boost productivity in the building industry, while reducing environmental impact.

Yusuf also urged the research institute to publicise and commercialise its prototypes for more acceptability by Nigerians and to bridge the nation’s housing deficits.