A real estate strategist, who won the Mayor of Housing Estates in Port Harcourt last year, My Ace-China has said, the only way to solve the 28 million housing deficit situation in Nigeria is an enabling environment.

My Ace-China said this on the occasion of the DMOMA Awards as he again meritoriously clinched the personality of the year 2023.

Speaking with newsmen after receiving his awards, he hammered on the hurdles investors face, stating that when policies becomes more favourable, there is ease of doing business in the sector.

“The greatest booster to solving the 28 million housing deficit in Nigeria is an enabling environment in the sector, these home-based investors face huge hurdles in most of the sectors including housing”.

“You will not imagine the setbacks and bureaucratic bottlenecks we face in starting a construction effort. Most times, those huddles lead to higher costs for the eventual houses because even the hurdle you overcome costs you more money and you have to recover the cost”.

“When the ease of doing business (EODB), ease of documentation, ease of layout, ease of allocation, and tax incentives are given to well-known developers like us, believe you me, the result will be nothing short of a boom in the property and housing sector”.

“We; The Construction and Housing Mayor Limited are an example of those people managing to crawl against the tide, when the government turns the tide in our favour, we will not only fly, we will do wonders”.

“With easy certificate of occupancy and ease of doing business, Rivers State can get 200,000 new houses in same period”.

He expressed gratitude to DMOMA for recognizing his efforts stating that they meticulously pick their awardees.

“This award means so much to me because DMOMA is a brand I have followed over the years. There are a lot of groups peddling awards, but DMOMA is different. I found it out last year when I won Brand of the Year Award. I was pitched against global and major brands, but because I was found to have delivered more value that year than any other, I won it”.

“That was when I began to suspect that these guys are credible. So, when they called me this year again that I have been voted in again by their followers, I was super excited”.

Commending Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara’s 20,000 Housing Units Initiative, the Real Estate Strategist said it will spark a chain reaction of houses from the private sector, noting that the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Policy on the project makes it feasible.

“I am quite elated because when he announced his social housing policy on his inauguration day (May 29, 2023) I was one of the first persons to react and commend him. He has now activated the necessary policy action to implement it”.

“We have been curiously and eagerly waiting for how it would be implemented. The houses are important but the model or process to the accessibility of the houses is even more important. There is need to see behind the housing scheme a self-auditing, self-sustaining and self-duplicating and fool-proof system to people to have access these houses”.

“If the process has these mechanisms, the administration would know that it has not only provided houses but it has created a system to continually provide houses in the state. It would start a chain reaction of houses from the private sector. I am eagerly awaiting and I am elated”.

“Direct building of houses by government has never worked; and this one is not government building houses directly. What I am excited about is the public private partnership (PPP) approach Gov Sim Fubara has used”.

Talking about the award he got, China said the person behind a brand determines its quality.

“The person behind the brand determines the quality of the brand. Ultimately, every business venture in the world would rise and fall on the personality of the personnel controlling it. It was Mary Kay that said every company is as strong as the personnel behind it”.

“Last year, they dug deep and discovered the brand, which is the Mayor of Housing. This year, they dug deeper and discovered the personality behind the brand, thus ‘The Personality of the Year Award’.”

“It is only coincidental that the brand won again and the personality also won this year, showing that there is something unique about both the brand, Mayor of Housing, and the personality behind it, My-ACE China. That means what we are doing is right, we are getting it right.”