FG Solicits Land From States For Workers’ Mass Housing

The Federal Government
has appealed to state governments to make plots of land available for its mass housing project for Nigerian workers.
The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs Akon Eyakenyi, made the plea at the inauguration of the 100,000 Nationwide Workers’ Housing Scheme in Abuja.
“Evidently, the support of the private sector is essential to shore up the level of investment required to meet the enormous demand for housing and provision of infrastructure, which is beyond the scope of government alone.
“Because of our firm commitment to better manage our rapidly expanding cities and our acknowledgement of housing as not only one of man’s basic needs but as a fundamental element required for the rapid growth of the economy, I wish to seize this medium to appeal to all the 36 state governments to make suitable an un-encumbered land available for the expansion of this worthy scheme for the benefit of Nigerian workers nationwide.“
Eyakenyi said the government was working out modalities to reduce the housing deficit in the country to promote access to home ownership and affordability by giving free lands to developers.
She, therefore, urged state governments to do the same as it would help reduce the cost of houses while increasing the rate of construction of more houses to alleviate the plight of low income earners.
She commended FCT Administration (FCTA) for providing land for the take-off of the initial 20,000 units of various types to be built and the two workers’ unions for their concerns for Nigerian workers.
The minister said the funding for the first phase of the scheme in Apo, FCT, was provided by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria through its national housing scheme.
According to her, the scheme is a veritable source for long-term financing mechanism for affordable home ownership, which calls for further strengthening and re-capitalisation of the bank to enable it to perform its function.
The Minister of FCT, Sen. Bala Mohammed, said the land swap initiative of the FCTA was to leverage on public private partnership to provide housing for FCT residents.
Mohammed said FCTA intended to develop 15 new districts to provide housing for one million residents, create 500,000 new jobs, and reduce housing deficit in Abuja.