FG To Solve Housing Crisis In Three Steps

L-R: Mustapha Shehuri, Babatunde Fashola

According to the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mustapha Baba Shehuri, the Federal Government (FG) has finalized plans on how it intends to make housing affordable for Nigerians in all 36 states of the Federation. A statement from an Assistant Director of Information in the Ministry of Housing, M. A. Ahmed, on Sunday in Abuja described 3 steps that the FG believes will ensure that the housing deficit in Nigeria, put at 17 million units, will be a past problem.

Building of Mass Housing Units  in every state

According to the statement, the FG has instructed the Ministry of Housing to ensure that it builds mass units of houses in every state of the country or public workers and other interested parties over the next three years, using a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. To achieve this, Shehuri said that housing models that reflect the cultural and climatic diversities of each region, as well as enable the country standardize the use of locally manufactured building materials have been developed. This was to make housing affordable on one hand and create jobs for the building industry on the other hand.

Scrapping of the Initial 10% equity deposit for housing mortgages below N5 million

According to Shehuri, the FG has scrapped the usual initial payment of 10 per cent equity from approved off-takers for housing mortgage loans less than N5 million in an effort to make the provision of affordable houses to Nigerians, especially low income earners a reality instead of the far-fetched dream that it is today. The statement did not however specify what the new arrangement will be, but confirmed the waiver by the FG.

Recapitalization of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria is expected to be in the middle of both the building and financing of these housing units and the Minister assured the bank that the government will lend its full support to the FMBN by ensuring that it is adequately recapitalised and repositioned to cater for the mortgage finance needs of Nigerian workers, who would be the major beneficiaries of houses built under the National Housing Programme.