The federal government is leaving no stone unturned to address the estimated 17 million housing deficit in Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari is doing everything possible to reduce the housing deficit in the country before the end of his administration.
This assertion was made by the Managing Director and Chief Executive, Federal Housing Authority (FHA), and Chairman Board of Directors, FHA Mortgage Bank, Senator Gbenga Ashafa during the unveiling of Expressview Estate, a partnership between Federal Housing Authority Mortgage Bank (FHAMB) and Mixta Africa in Lugbe, Abuja.
Ashafa, who said there is no actual data on the housing deficit in Nigeria, noted that the Buhari administration has done a lot in delivering houses to both the low and the high income earners.
He said the data on housing deficit in Nigeria do not always capture unoccupied houses, adding that housing projects like the one flagged off in Lugbe which is seating on a 1.5 hectare of land where 58 terrace flats would be built are not mostly captured.
The FHA MD said the agency has just completed about 300 houses in Zuba for the low income earners, adding that a lot of houses have been delivered to Nigerians within a short period, The Trumpet gathered.
Making reference to the position of the Minister of Works & Housing, Babatunde Fashola on the much touted figure, Senator Ashafa said: “What the Minister of Works and Housing have been saying right from the onset, was that we have not been able to come up with specific deficit figure.
However, if you look at the project we are embarking on now, are we going to count the units as part of the houses in existence? What about the number of unoccupied houses everywhere, are we counting them?
“If you go round, you will see a lot of unoccupied houses, due to the cost put on them by the developers and the negative effect of the present economic realities”.
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“We know we have a lot of work to do but the Buhari administration is doing a lot to ensure that we reduce the number of Housing deficit in the country” Also speaking, Hayatudeen Awwal, the Managing Director of the FHA Mortgage Bank said the partnership with Mixta Africa will transform the Expressview Estate in Lugbe.
“Any development in Lugbe along the road is for the Federal Housing Authority. Lugbe belongs to the federal housing authority. We delivered Gwarinpa, Karu, Maitama, Asokoro, Kubwa Estates and now we are here “The entire project will be funded to deliver Houses with ease. We carefully selected the partners.
We would have commissioned the project but the mask on the plot of land delayed the process,” Awwal said. On her part, Sade Hughes, the Country Director, Mixta Africa, said the developer has been leading the development of Africa, adding that it decided to expand its business to Abuja in partnership with FHA Mortgage Bank.
In his remarks, Ugochukwu Ndubuisi, Mixta’s Executive Director of legal and corporate services said the partnership was a welcome development as Mixta Africa takes pride in building communities.
“We have built properties in Lagos and Port Harcourt and now, we are in Abuja and we will use the Expressview Estate project in Lugbe to showcase our capability. We will complete this project on time and move to other ones,” Ndubuisi said.
