Dele Ogbodo in Abuja
The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), have been directed by the federal government to synergise their skills and capabilities to build 30,000 housing units in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano. The partnership, THISDAY learnt, will also create 2 million jobs for unemployed Nigerians.
While the FMBN will provide the financing through its mortgage scheme, the FHA will provide parts of its land located in 34 states across the country for the project.
The acting Managing Director of FMBN, Mr. Richard Esin, represented by the Executive Director, Loans and Mortgages, Charles Nyor Ajiva, made the disclosure at the inauguration of the joint committee on housing delivery in Abuja.
The FMBN boss said: “Since FHA has land in different locations of this country and FMBN is into mortgage financing, we will use our money to build on the land that they have to produces houses.”
According to Esin, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, SAN Mr. Babatunde Fashola, advised the two agencies to use their different skills and capabilities through synergy for the production of houses, which is part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s mandate to deliver 1 million houses annually.
He said: “In view of special skills and capability for FMBN in financing and FHA in the production of houses, we can actually complement each other in the delivery of houses that actually prompted us to come together and began to think of ways that we can partner and have synergy in the housing delivery.”
On the timeline for delivery of the project, he said: “We hope to deliver a minimum of an estate by 12 months and so we are looking at the formalisation of modalities and within 12 months we should be able to get an estate and by next week we will start work.
“The minister is working under the president and has prompted the agencies working under him to begin to work towards delivery of houses.
“In his last trip to China housing is part of the component that was discussed and we are expecting big Chinese firms in the housing sector to come in to support the housing delivery.”
He dispelled insinuation that poor Nigerians do not have access to houses built by FMBN, adding, “What we do in FMBN is to finance houses for Nigerians who contributors to the NHF. “These are government staff and workers, because when we finance an estate it is only the workers who contribute to the NHF that can access.”
In a remark, the Managing Director of FHA, Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin, admitted that with the collaboration of the two groups together, the desired objective would be met.
He said: “On our part, FHA has land across the country in 34 states of the country and they are all at the level of acquisition or design which we can quickly start work on any of these lands.
“We already had a framework of direction to further look at Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Kano. And in all these locations there are lands ready for development, in kano we have 300 units, while we have about 300 hectares in Abuja.”
