Lagos – Mr Kenneth Nduka, the 1st Vice-President, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), has urged the Federal Government to subsidise prices of building materials to reduce cost of building and construction.
Nduka, who gave the advice in an interview the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday, added that the move would also reduce the cost of renting houses across the country.
He said that the high cost of building materials was a major cause of the continued increases in the renting of accommodations, particularly in major cities of the country.
The VP said that developers often inflate prices of house rents to be able to recoup the costs incurred erecting hoses due to the high cost of materials used.
According to him, it is irrational for a developer to rent or sell his/her house below their cost price, saying that the goal behind every business adventure is profit.
“The cost of renting accommodations are on the high side because the materials and human resources used in their production are high.
“There is nothing a developer can do, unless the prices of the materials are subsidised.
“If the prices of building materials can be reduced without compromising their quality, house rents will invariably come down too,” he said.
Nduka also called on the government to revamp the cement industries and formulate policies that would make prices of cement uniform and affordable.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
He added that the policy became necessary because cement had remained a major material used in housing construction.
Nduka said that the government could subsidise the product and stabilise the price of bags of cement at N1, 000.00 irrespective of types or brands.
According to him, there is need to ban importation of building materials or increase the tariff for the plan to work.
Nduka also urged the government to grant tax holidays to companies producing the building materials in the country so as to relieve them of the high cost of production and invariably, reduce price of the materials in markets.
“Such a policy will not be limited only to cement, it will also apply to other materials used in building constructions.
“That will encourage local production and consumption of the materials as well as reduce cost of house rents’’. (NAN)