Sustainable Concrete From Carbon Dioxide

J.R. DeShazo, left, and Gaurav Sant show off a sample of the new building material they have created to replace concrete.

Credit: Roberto Gudino/UCL

Imagine a world with little or no concrete. Would that even be possible? After all, concrete is everywhere -- on our roads, our driveways, in our homes, bridges and buildings. For the past 200 years, it's been the very foundation of much of our planet.

But the production of cement, which when mixed with water forms the binding agent in concrete, is also one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, about 5 percent of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions comes from concrete.

Human Impact And Earth's Global Energy Flow

New research suggests that Earth is now characterized by a geologically unprecedented pattern of global energy flow that is pervasively influenced by humans - and which is necessary for maintaining the complexity of modern human societies.

Credit: © tr3gi / Fotolia

The impact humans have made on Earth in terms of how we produce and consume resources has formed a 'striking new pattern' in the planet's global energy flow, according to researchers from the University of Leicester.

Fertilizer Polluting Water For Decades

View of runoff, also called nonpoint source pollution, from a farm field in Iowa during a rain storm. Topsoil as well as farm fertilizers and other potential pollutants run off unprotected farm fields when heavy rains occur.

Credit: Lynn Betts/U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service

Dangerous nitrate levels in drinking water could persist for decades, increasing the risk for blue baby syndrome and other serious health concerns, according to a new study published by researchers at the University of Waterloo.

Effects Of Melting Antarctic Ice Sheets

Melting ice (stock image).

Credit: © Vladimir Melnik / Fotolia

A new study from climate scientists Robert DeConto at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and David Pollard at Pennsylvania State University suggests that the most recent estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for future sea-level rise over the next 100 years could be too low by almost a factor of two. Details appear in the current issue of Nature.

Why Nigerians Shun Mortgage Schemes

The inability of prospective homeowners to readily come up with the required equity contribution on mortgages has been identified as one of the factors slowing down the process of mortgage origination in Nigeria, Housing news  investigation has revealed. It also partly explains the nation’s huge housing deficit of more than 17 million homes.

Housing Development Programme With Festus Adebayo And Flora Anne: AIT Ep...

COURTESY VISIT OF REDAN BOT MEMBERS TO PROF. AKIN MABOGUNJE

Accessing Mortgage Loan from National Housing Fund

How FG can Provide Affordable Housing - NIQS President

World Bank To Assist Nigeria Rebuild N/East – UN

World Bank earmarks $800m for rebuilding N/East – UN

The World Bank has earmarked $800 million to support the rebuilding of the infrastructure destroyed in the North East by the Boko Haram insurgency.
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Ms Fatma Samoura, disclosed this yesterday in Maiduguri during a visit to Gov Kashim Shettima.
Samoura, who is also a UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, said the UN was scaling up its presence in Borno and other North Eastern States ravaged by the insurgency.

Should I refinance my mortgage?

Housing Policies (Part ii)

TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL HOUSING POLICY (Part ii)

Social Housing There’s no private Developer who is not profit oriented. Thus, the calls from some quarters for the involvement of Private Developers in Social Housing, seems illogical and unreasonable. Even Non-Governmental Organizations, NGO’s, except set up by wealthy individuals (like Manny Pacquiao) still derive some elements of profitability in their operations.

National Economic Council Retreat

What Osinbajo, Governors, Ministers agreed at National Economic Council Retreat

The National Economic Council retreat which began Monday, ended Tuesday.

The meeting had as theme: Nigerian States: Multiple Centres of Prosperity, and explored ways to respond to the nation’s current economy crisis.

A statement from the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo provides highlights of what was discussed and agreed at the retreat attended by Mr. Osinbajo, state governors and ministers.

The following are highlights of the retreat:

Nigerite Free Roofing

Nigerite to Roof Homes with Solo Xtra For Free

Nigerite Limited, Nigeria’s foremost building company has launched a new Corporate Social Responsibility to deliver brand new, high quality roofing products to selected homes across South West of Nigeria at no cost to the homes owners.

Lafarge N9bn By Mid 2018

Lafarge’s Integration To Generate Synergy Savings of N9bn Mid 2018

Lafarge Africa Plc, a leading ce­ment and building solutions provider, has reported its 2015 results, with revenue up two per cent at N267 billion.

Its South West operations grew by eight per cent following a number of initiatives such as the Key Distribu­tion Scheme, a strong route to mar­ket and solid capacity utilization.

1 Million Houses Destroyed -- Gov. Shettima

Boko Haram destroyed 1m houses in Borno – Shettima

The Borno Government on Monday said about one million private houses had been destroyed by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in the few years of their terror campaign in the state. 

Gov. Kashim Shettima disclosed this while receiving former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Maiduguri. “Tens of thousands of our innocent citizens were brutally killed; married and single women were abducted and raped; our sons were forced into becoming child-soldiers; “More than 2 million citizens were internally displaced in camps and host communities in Maiduguri alone. “Others fled to different parts of Nigeria including Lagos, some fled to neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroon,” Shettima said.

A 79-unit Abuja Estate, By Shell

Shell, developer completes 79-unit Abuja Estate

Shell has inaugurated the Imani-Shell Estate Phase 2 located in Maitama District of Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The project was developed by Shell Nigeria Closed Pension Fund Administrator (SNCPFA), in partnership with Imani and Sons Nigeria Limited, and consists of 28-unit luxury residential apartments to complement the existing 51 units in the phase one of the estate.

Ashakacem Constructing Concrete Road in Gombe

Ashakacem commits N700m to concrete road construction in Gombe

Ashaka Cement Plc., a subsidiary of Lafarge Africa Plc., and member of Lafarge Holcim held a groundbreaking ceremony for the eight kilometer Maiganga Concrete Road Construction in Gombe State.

Sector Performance

Monitoring Sector Performance

Over the past few years, CAHF has focused on several innovative ways to monitor the performance of the housing and housing finance sector in Africa in order to provide sound and useful analysis into the market to further develop the market and assist in promoting access to housing loans. The centre has been concerned with the experience that lenders have in offering housing finance to lower income people – and whether this experience supports ongoing lending or a revised strategy. The role of data in market development has been established in other countries.  Experience in the US has shown that when regulators and lenders shared their data and made it available for public analysis, this prompted innovation in product development and spurred investment decisions that would have otherwise not been possible.  Limitations in the availability of accurate and relevant data are one of the most significant factors undermining market development in Africa.

Housing Finance

Innovation in Housing Finance

This theme promotes innovation in responding to the housing finance challenges that persist in Africa.  Given our understanding of the housing asset and how it performs for low income earners, the investigations in this theme consider how such performance might be enhanced with financial innovation.

Housing Markets

Understanding Housing Markets

CAHF’s interest began with a review of the secondary (resale) property markets in the former black townships in South Africa – The Township Residential Property Markets (TRPM) study.  The TRPM study identified that property markets in the former black townships were dysfunctional, with limited churn (about a fifth of what would be expected in a ‘normal’ market) and depressed prices (with households suffering a 44% reduction on the sale price of their homes from what they expected).  In this context, bank reticence to lend was justifiable – the asset by which a mortgage loan would be secured was unrealisable, essentially worthless, and no security against default at all.

President Buhari On Housing

My Housing Agenda , By Buhari

In a welcome address delivered  by President Buhari at the opening of the two-day National Economic Council retreat holding in Abuja, the president put Nigeria’s housing deficit at about 16 million units.

He said: “In our successful campaign to win the general election last year our party, the APC, promised to build a million housing units a year. This will turn out to be a very tall order unless  “The federal government builds 250,000 units and the 22 APC states together manage another 250,000 units; then we invite foreign investors together with local domiciled big construction companies to enter into commercial housing building to pick up the rest.”

The President also noted that ” severe shortage of housing, high rents, unaffordable prices for the prospective buyers, especially middle and low-income earners” in addition to ‘red Tape, corruption and plain public service inefficiency lead to long delays in obtaining ownership of title documents” Others were the huddles faced in actualizing meaningful housing scheme for all.

Buhari called for a review of the relevant laws to make the process of acquiring statutory rights of occupancy shorter, less cumbersome and less costly.

He further suggested: “Court procedures for mortgages cases should make enforcement more efficient. The Ministries of (Power) Works and Housing should upgrade its computerization of title registration system for greater efficiency.”

http://www.housingnews.org.ng/category/blog/

The NMRC on Videos

The Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company on Videos:

 

Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company To Make Housing More Affordable Prt1

 

Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company To Make Housing More Affordable Prt2

About The Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC)

The NMRC

The NMRC is a private sector driven company with the public purpose of developing the primary and secondary mortgage markets by raising long-term funds from the domestic capital market as well as foreign markets and thereby provide accessible and affordable housing in Nigeria. NMRC was incorporated on 24th of June 2013 as Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company Plc. It obtained an Approval-in-Principle from the CBN on 20th June 2013.

VISION
To encourage and promote home ownership in Nigeria by providing financial facilities to the mortgage lenders, thereby increasing the availability and affordability of mortgage loans to Nigerians.

BUSINESS STRATEGIES

• To encourage financial institutions to increase their mortgage lending by providing them with long term funding;
• To increase the maturity structure of mortgage loans and assist to reduce mortgage rates;
• To increase the efficiency of mortgage lending by taking a lead role in proposing changes to the enabling environment for mortgage lending as well as by standardising mortgage lending practices of financial institutions; and
• To introduce a new class of high quality long-term assets to the pension funds and other investors It is intended that these objectives will be executed in phases in order to enable the NMRC operate as efficiently as possible in the Nigerian environment and lay the foundations for supporting other key sectors of the economy.