The Federal Government has been urged to partner real estate agencies in the country to build low cost estates for teachers so as to address the nation’s housing deficit.
Executive Director Real Estate Synergy Support Associate (RESSA) project Nigeria, Festus Ibiam made the call while speaking at the annual Teachers Must Become Land Owners Summit held in Lagos.
Ibiam explained that such partnership would support economic growth and show commitment to improving the living condition of the low income earners in the country.
Describing teachers as builders of future leaders, he said, “If teachers who are builders of the next generation do not have roof over their heads, they will not have a settled mind to impact into the young ones positively.’’
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Speaking on the annual event, RESSA boss explained that this year’s programme was the 6th in its series and it aimed to celebrate teachers and offer lucky persons among them the opportunity to win half plot of a land each in Lagos.
He further said that since its inception, the event has improved the living standard of the winners who are now land owners.
According to him, “Real Estate Synergy Support Associates project has come to change the narrative. What we do is to encourage them to form a team of eleven teachers in their schools, we understand that they do monthly contributions and because they do not have any project to execute, the moment they receive their monthly contributions, they consume it, but now we encourage them to invest their contributions in acquiring properties.
“So, now when they receive their contributions, eleven of them will add it together and buy a land for one person, before one and half years all of them would have become a land owners, we will give them time to pay for the remaining part of the money. We wave both agency and agreement fees for them.’’
On the choice of teachers, he said: “Our focus on teachers was born out of passion for proper education. Purpose gave birth to vision and vision attracts goal setting, and we must achieve our goal on nation building. Teachers are drivers of nation building.’’
On his part, a representative of RESSA in Ghana, Stephen Kojo Sackey who spoke on the theme stressed the urgent need for teachers to own a property.
According to Sackey who is Ghanaian international diplomat and humanitarian advocate, “teachers must become land owners because as part of the United Nations goals, security and also human rights are one of the cardinal principles for any humanity on earth and teachers are also part of that ecosystem; so, they must have a decent accommodation for them to support our students in the classroom and also give a befitting houses to their children or relatives.”
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While stating that housing deficit is a global challenge, he added: “It is not only limited to Nigeria, Africa or Ghana where l come from, about three billion people is suffering from housing challenges and Nigeria as estimated currently they are about two hundred and thirty eight million according to United Nation data statistics and it is estimated that in 2050 Nigeria would be about four hundred million people and it poses a lot of challenge to government around the world.
“In that sense it calls for collaboration and partnership, and one of the ways that we can address this timid challenges is for the government and private organisations, civil society organisations and firms like RESSA to partner with government around the world to be able to reduce this menace because, if people do not have decent accommodation they would not be able to support the economic development agenda that governments are seeking for.’’
He also called for more collaborations among African countries, saying that “This is in line with the United Nations Rule I7 which talks about partnership, and that is the only sure pathway to achieve other goals that have been stipulated by the United Nations.”
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke in an interview lauded the organisers of the event, describing the RESSA project as an opportunity for teachers to manage their limited resources.
