Enugu housing: FG spends N15.4b in eight years

Federal Government spent over N15.4 billion for 1,924 housing units in Enugu State in the last eight years, Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Madu Hamman, has said.

Speaking at the commissioning of FMBN/I-Connect Winners Estate, Trans-Ekulu, Enugu, yesterday, Hamman noted that the successful completion of the housing projects underscored the desire of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to tackle the housing shortage facing the country.

He stated that the effort was being replicated nationwide.

He said: “This transaction with I-Connect Cooperative Society has delivered four projects rolled into one. Through this landmark project, the bank has delivered 404 housing units in four separate transactions.

“The first three projects are located here in Trans-Ekulu, while the fourth site is located at Nkanu West.

“The journey to deliver these projects with I-Connect started in 2018 with the first loan advanced to the cooperative for the purpose of delivering 52 housing units. In 2019, another loan was approved for the society to deliver another 52 units.

“In 2020 and 2022, two other separate transactions were approved to deliver 150 housing units each. In total, the bank has committed more than N5.2 billion credit facilities on these projects.”

The FMBN boss noted that in addition to the four housing projects commissioned yesterday, which were financed under the FMBN Cooperative Housing Development Loan

(CHDL) window, there are nine other ones spread across the state that have also been financed and successfully delivered by the bank under various loan windows.

He said the bank has committed more than N10.2 billion to deliver 1,520 housing units through those projects.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, noted that the Federal Government has done a lot to reduce the level of poverty in the country by providing houses to several Nigerians.

He said: “When you talk about solving problems such as poverty, there’s nothing more defining as shelter. And that is a measure of prosperity.

“You have moved from becoming dependent for shelter to persons who are now reasonably self-sufficient.

“There are many other people apart from home owners, who also benefited from the prjects, such as architects, surveyors, construction companies, artisans, suppliers and transporters.”