Presence of construction bank in the country will aid the growth and development of not just its housing and construction sec-tors, but the entire national economy as a whole.

This was the information gathered by Pro-perty and Environment based on a recent report made by the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), through its President, Mr Segun Ajanleko.

According to Mr Ajanlekoko, an effective construction banking system in the country would cater for the need of various vital sectors of the nation’s economy, thereby making Nigeria to be at par with some other nations of the world such as Singapore and South Africa.

“It is strongly recommended that a Construction Bank should be established to cater for the funding needs of the vital sector, in line with what obtains in countries such as Singapore and South Africa,” said Ajanlekoko, who further added that, “APBN supports the establishment of a Nigeria Construction Industry Commission to serve as one stop agency to coordinate and manage the construction indus-try.”

Also when speaking about the built environment generally, Ajanle-koko, who is also a quantity surveyor, insisted that the nation’s Land Use Reform should be fully implemented.

“Nigerians should have easier access to rural and urban lands,” he stated, while also calling on the government to institute the setting up of stakeholders’ project imple-mentation committee that will ensure quick delivery of affordable types and units to end users and not to speculators.

“Government should also ensure the prompt release of the Housing Intervention Fund recently introduced by removing all system bottlenecks for the impact of this initiative to be felt,” while further disclosing that the “Association calls for an improvement on the N200 billion, which represents a little proportion of the massive funding the housing sector requ-ires.”