Promoting affordable housing through quality & sustainable child education (1)

Affordable Housing is a theme synonymous with the masses world over. Even in very advanced societies, the theme; Affordable Housing still trends in the news. In advancing countries as Nigeria; it is not out of place. The difference is that; with the highly developed societies; Affordable Housing has taken root. Everything has been done to realize this. It is no more a major challenge. All the citizen requires is to be qualified. In the United Kingdom for instance; a citizen can do his affordability assessment and come to term with the result. No intrigues and no ’mago-mago’ as we say it in this part of the world.

If there is one factor that influences a man’s Housing decision, it is the education of his wards. It is not negotiable. Where to live; when to live there; how to live in the choice place all dog tail to the child education decision. No parents want to wake up and suddenly discover that haven given themselves a dream house, the child has no school to attend. Some even take further steps to define the type and standard of school their wards must have access to within manageable proximity from the resident. This has been a direct militating factor to housing surplus. A friend once told me and he meant it with every fiber of life around him; ‘I would rather remain here (in a rented apartment in Surulere) than move to one obscure neighborhood where the education of my children would be sacrificed on the alter of personal house’. This is just one of the millions of the unsung Nigerians who would not take any further step if they are not double sure of the provision of qualitative child-education in the new neighborhood. This decision further helps to fuel accommodation crises in the already congested urban neighborhood and the consequences of this is very unhealthy housing practices.

For developers; mostly those in partnership with statutory institutions that are expected to assist the Federal Government realize the concept of Affordable Housing for all Nigerians; their drive has always been to hit the bull’s eye. They put all their resources in massive construction of residences that are expected to be sold to the masses that are qualified for such using the set parameter. In the course of this, so much is left behind in providing other amenities that are to support the needs of the deserving buyers who would eventually become occupants. One of the facilities that take the backstage is educational facilities for the children and wards of the lucky beneficiaries. More often than none, these wards are left at the mercy of other opportunists who are driven strictly by profit and have divested some of their investable funds into providing these schools not necessarily with a passion for effective and sustainable child education. This now provides some level of disequilibrium. While the parents may have realised their dream of personal Housing; they loose out in the provision of quality affordable and sustainable education for their children.

However, SIM Properties & Homes Limited, a major Player in the Real Estate sector has found a lasting solution to this enduring challenge. This company invited PropertyLogic to the unveiling of an ultra modern state-of-the-art child education facility in one of its sprawling Estate facilities located in Ofada Hills in Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria. The Chairman of the company, Professor Simeon Ohirien Ahonsi is a man who would give an eye for a child to be educated. To him, nothing should be spared in giving a child the best in education and this must not be substituted for anything else.

Akhigbe Dominic