Housing Deficit: FG To Inaugurate 1071 Houses In Eight States 

Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) says it will commission 1,071 completed houses in eight project sites throughout the country on Thursday, January 19, 2023.

Gatekeepers News reports that the bank disclosed this in a statement signed by Timan Elayo, Group Head, Corporate communications, FMBN, on Tuesday.

The states include: Akure in Ondo state; Yola in Adamawa state; Katsina in Katsina State, Abakiliki in Ebonyi state; Damaturu in Yobe state; Sokoto, Maiduguri in Borno state; as well as Kogi state.

FMBN said the housing units are part of the over 3,560 homes under phases one and two of the National affordable housing delivery programme.

It said the housing scheme is a collaboration between the bank and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA).

The firm said the programme aims to build and deliver decent, safe, and quality housing for Nigerian workers at a price that they can afford.

It added that the house types are based on proven social housing models and comprise one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units, with prices ranging from N3.1 million to N8.3 million..

FMBN noted that the joint implementation committee (JIC) of the programme, comprising NLC, TUC, and NECA, approved the commissioning exercise at its meeting at the bank’s headquarters in Abuja.

Speaking on development, Hamman Madu, Managing Director, FMBN, excitedly applauded the labour centres for their cooperation and support towards completion of the first batch of the housing units.

“We are excited at the progress that we have made on the national affordable housing delivery programme. Indeed, it is a historic initiative as it marks the first time that FMBN and the organised labour and NECA are working together on the basis of a realistic and acceptable framework for delivering affordable housing to Nigerian workers,” Madu said.

He added that the Stakeholders’ involvement and contributions to the project design make the scheme a fit-for-purpose tool that will deliver houses that workers can afford.

This, Madu said, is part of the overall National efforts toward redressing the huge housing deficit that experts now estimate to be over 22 million housing units.