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‘Our challenge in housing delivery is funding, land acquisition’

By Chinedum Uwaegbulam
15 February 2015   |   11:00 pm
WITH an eye on bridging the housing gap, estimated at over 17 million units, the federal authorities last week listed funding and land acquisition as its main challenges in meeting the demands of homeownership in the country.      The minister, Land, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi disclosed that the government has been…

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WITH an eye on bridging the housing gap, estimated at over 17 million units, the federal authorities last week listed funding and land acquisition as its main challenges in meeting the demands of homeownership in the country. 

    The minister, Land, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi disclosed that the government has been successful in acquiring land in some states, with the assistance of the governors, which will soon be allocated to private developers to commence housing development.

   Speaking on the ministry’s achievement, she said: “Jonathan’s administration have been able to put up 61,000 affordable houses for workers and other Nigerians inclusive, another 100,000 housing units specifically for workers are on-going. The flag-off for the first 20,000 was done in Apo late last year, we also have  10,000 housing units  on-going across the country, but the first set of houses was specifically meant for workers. The project was started in Gwagwalada, Abuja by Signature company from Dubai.”

  Eyakenyi stated that  in providing affordable housing to Nigerians, $300million was giving by the World Bank to Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC)  through the Federal Ministry of Finance, which will be repaid over a period of 30 years at zero interest rate to help in mobilizing primary mortgage institutions in Nigeria to support the housing sector.

   According to her, the houses planned for the workers are affordable. “We are looking at the different cadre of the civil servants, especially low income persons on level three to four that earns about N20, 000 in a month, and providing a one bedroom apartment, two bedroom apartments, and three bedroom apartments as well as studio apartments with toilet/bathroom closet and kitchen cabinet at a subsidised cost. 

   “The government is providing the land free of charge and working with professionals in the ministry to provide services such as  design, electrical, mechanical, and bill of quantities. Apart from that, supervision which is the most important aspect of coonstruction to ensure standard will also be done by the professionals in the ministry free of charge, to reduce the cost of construction at the end of the day. ” 

  On building collapse and efforts to curb the menace, the minister said, “When the mixture of sand outweighs the cement, the building may collapse after a short while, either because of heat or excessive down pour. Actually, there are standards and specifications for laying foundation for one bedroom, a flat or for laying a foundation for a storey building, the iron rods, concretes are all part of the standards that must be adhered to. We have been able to address the stakeholder to ensure that the building code ethics are strictly followed to curtail the collapse building that we have in Nigeria.”

 

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