2 days ago
27
By Maduka Nweke
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Periwinkle Lifestyle Estate, Mr. Chiedu Nweke, has called for an urgent review of the Land Use Act, describing it as anti-business and lacking a people-centric approach. He argued that the current framework creates bureaucratic bottlenecks that stifle investment and economic growth, emphasising the need for reforms that prioritise accessibility, fairness and business-friendly policies.
According to him, the aim of establishing the Land Use Act was against the real owners of the land. He added that the Act, which was decreed during the military era, was to give the government undue advantage of the land over the real local communities that own the land.
Speaking to Daily Sun in an interview, Nweke said, “Land use act came because the government was looking for land and local communities were resisting releasing the land.
“Government, therefore, decided to take all lands so that local chiefs will no longer be a stumbling block to access. The Act itself is anti-business because traditionally, if you want your business to thrive, people must be free to provide land.
“When the community loses the right of ownership of land then you would go to the governor and tell the governor we want this land to be for school. The governor can say, no, you can’t do it because they have overriding power because of the land use act.
“The land use Act originally came with the military decree. The intention initially was good but now it requires review. To open up the place, people should feel free to transact. That is what is limited. There should be a middle course where the government can regulate what the people do through land and not that all land should be vested to the governor. So the local communities should be empowered, “he said.
When asked whether the real estate sector truly empowers Nigerians, Mr. Nweke, the owner of Bethlehem Estate in Awka, Anambra State, responded by saying; “I think real estate is the biggest industry in Nigeria”.
He noted that there is no industry that is bigger than real estate in Nigeria.
“Real estate can help define the economy by employing people and if it is addressed well, it can help in reducing inflation in the country. Real estate has the potential to do so. I believe real estate is the highest employer of labour in Nigeria. So, the government should be interested in expanding that zone to reduce unemployment in the economy,” he said.
On the performance of mortgages in the country, the founder of Orange Island said, “Mortgage financing is not working in the country. It is very important that a mortgage should work in an economy like ours”.
He said that it is a cultural thing that a mortgage is not working. “There is no middle class. For instance, when you take employment, working somewhere, the correct thing is that you stay there to maturity, so, that place you are working will start giving you incentive up to the point of having a home. That way the mortgage institutions can, because you have an identity say in Periwinkle, they can give you even a little collateral to borrow money. That is the problem in Nigeria. There is also no data about people’s whereabouts. People who work for banks, or Shell or other oil companies are the people who are actually regarded as working because they love their job and would not like to move around. But if you go to the other sectors of the economy, people move around, they don’t even take it as work because they can resign today or they can be sacked today, “he decried.
He stated that policies of the government have an impact on real estate whether positive or negative. “I have been having discussions with people on how real estate can help the government. Government understands that real estate can help it by employing people, driving the economy, boosting the economy and all that.
“If you want to check the pressure being exerted on the economy, it is through real estate because the cost of construction is high as a result of high cost of funds and cost of building materials also add up to the overall cost of finished property. This invariably results in the high cost of rentals and buying.
“The only way the government can do that is by checking the approval process of land in terms of reducing the cost. The regulatory area is another area the government can help by being ready to give incentives to makers of cement just like they are doing with petroleum products. They should do the same with cement, building materials, roofing sheets and so on. With this, home could become affordable and the young man can graduate and be able to own a home where to raise a family,” he stated.
English (US) ·