FG Targets N800 million affordable Housing for Nigerians

The federal government is targeting a budget of over N800 million to provide affordable mass housing for Nigerians.

According to a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES, the Chief Executive Officer of Family Homes Funds (FHF), Femi Adewole, disclosed this at the fundraising/launching of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria house (REDAN), yesterday in Abuja.

Mr Adewole also said some of the locations for the housing project are Kaduna, Kano, Lagos and Delta States.

His comment comes barely a month after the special adviser to the president on economic matters, Adeyemi Dipeolu, said the federal government will, over the next five years, invest N500 billion to bridge the housing deficit through the FHF.
He had also said the federal government is giving FHF N100 billion yearly for the next five years with anticipation that it is going to leverage one trillion naira of private resources.

The money, he explained, is essentially to help build social and affordable housing for Nigerians so that a person earning N30, 000 you can be able to buy houses that will be under the FHF.

In his speech, Mr Adewole hinted the government will not able to finance the project but it is seeking the support of the World Bank and Africa Development Bank (AFDB) and hoped that before the end of December over 200 houses would have been completed.

“We have to raise about N800 million to provide mass housing at the rate of N1.5 to N2 million. We are talking to a lot of development partners like the World Bank, African Development Bank (AFDB) to house over 500, 000 Nigerians,” he said.

On his part, the president of REDAN, Ugochukukwu Chime, stated that the house project will cost N500 million and is expected to be “partially completed and occupied in one year and fully completed, equipped and furnished in two years.”

He further appealed to the federal government through the instrumentality of the FHF, to simplify the requirements and participation for willing Nigerians.

“Concentration on demand induced supply based on market forces has not yielded the desired dividends “because of the value chain and transaction dynamics that will produce such effective linkage is none existent,” he said.

“It is our responsibility to work with stakeholders in the house sector to ensure that we move away from the learning curve to a higher pedestal of project feasibility, execution and closure” stressing that “we seek to improve one’s capacity and knowledge.”