The Federal Government is to provide more affordable housing units for about 2,000 families, the Minister of State for Works and Housing, Mu’azu Sambo, announced on Monday.
Sambo said the provision of additional homes was to demonstrate the determination of the Federal Government in reducing the housing deficit in Nigeria.
He, however, stated that the houses were being provided in the Federal Capital Territory, while speaking during his maiden inspection of the Affordable Housing and Management Development Initiative in Gwagwalada, Abuja.
Sambo said that it was a constitutional and fundamental requirement for government to provide decent and affordable houses for its citizens.
He was quoted in a statement issued in Abuja by the ministry as saying, “It is a fundamental priority of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to provide decent and affordable houses for the teeming masses of Nigerians especially against the backdrop of rural-urban migration.
“It may interest you to know that out of the 200 million Nigerians we have today, it is estimated that about half of that figure are living in the urban centres.
“It is the responsibility of any government most especially the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration to make sure that affordable houses are provided for them.”
Sambo said the affordable housing initiative in the FCT would be a template to be replicated across the country if the government gets it right, stressing that the target was to see how the buildings would be sold at the lowest possible cost.
The Head, Public Private Partnership, Ministry of Works and Housing, Abimbola Asein, said the homes at the Affordable Housing Development and Management Initiative site were sitting on 113 hectares of land.
She said the aim of the project was to provide affordable houses for Nigerians especially the low and middle income earners.
Asein explained that the initiative was a public-private partnership programme, adding that the first phase of the project commenced in December 2021.
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