ABUJA (MPWH’ Report)- The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, has said that the on-going National Housing Programme is a new housing policy conceived by the present administration with the aim of achieving acceptability and affordability by Nigerians. Saying, the Housing policy is geared towards providing affordable housing for Nigerians in both private and public sectors.
Fashola disclosed this in an interview recently on Sunrise Daily, Channels Television, while appraising his performance in the housing sector in the past two years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The Minister further noted that for houses to be appreciated by Nigerians, they must pass the test of acceptability because Nigeria is a country with multifaceted ethnic and cultural background and climatic conditions. “What is acceptable to a Northerner may not be to a Southerner”.
He noted that the Ministry is currently constructing about 2,000 pilot scheme Housing Units in 33 States of the country with targeted beneficiaries within an income bracket of grade level 8 – 14 in both private and public sectors.
He also disclosed that the Minister of State, Mustapha Baba Shehuri, had undergone inspection tour of houses under construction in the 33 States and expressed satisfaction at the work done so far, adding that some of the housing constructions are at the roofing and lintel stages.
The Minister advised Nigerians to embrace and key into the concept of mortgages as a means of financing home ownership because that is the practice in other countries. He said the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and Federal Housing Authority (FHA) being Parastatals of the Ministry are alive to their responsibilities of meeting the housing needs of Nigerians with construction of housing estates across the nation.
