By Bennett Oghifo
Nigeria’s desire to reduce the housing deficit is being addressed through the Family Homes Fund, one of several efforts expected to address the acute need for affordable housing in the country through the combined effort of various market players, including government ministries, its agencies and the private sector.
The challenge of adequate housing is a daunting one. But there are significant reasons for optimism that new partnerships and initiatives supported by the federal and state governments will help provide the over 17million new homes we need over the next 15 years, said the promoters of the fund.
The Family Homes Fund Limited is one of such new initiatives, the officials said. Through a combination of activities, the Family Homes Fund aims to create or support up to 1,500,000 jobs by 2023 making a real difference to the quality of life of families and the economy.Â
The Fund is a partnership between the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority as founding shareholders. Â
The Fund will be the largest affordable housing focused fund in Sub-Sahara Africa leveraging its significant capital (in excess of N1trn by 2023) to facilitate access to affordable housing for millions of Nigerians on low to medium income. Through strategic partnerships with various players in the sector and some of the world’s main Development Finance Institutions it has an ambitious commitment to facilitate at supply of 500,000 homes by 2023
However, leveraging its capital to support the supply of new homes for families on low to medium income is only a means to an end. The key priority for the Fund is to take advantage of the opportunity a large- scale house building programme offers to create jobs, which are sustainable and offer families security, improved quality of life and hope.
Housing, Jobs and Economic Development
With a projected cumulative spend of up to N1trillion by 2023 into various inputs into the housebuilding process including doors, windows, tiles, roofing materials, blocks, paving stones, paint etc. there is opportunity to incubate large numbers of SME small scale industries, creating significant employment.
The Family Homes Fund aims to catalyse the creation of new jobs through the investments we make. Alongside investment by other players in the housing sector we have a real opportunity to achieve impact, real positive impact on families, women who often carry the biggest burden in poor households and young people. At a national level, this potential effectively harnessed could generate up to 1.5% increase to the GDP by 2023.
How will we make this happen?  The Family Homes Fund Ltd.’s approach to creating jobs will be driven by 3 priorities:
Policy – The Fund aims to support ongoing dialogue around development of a local contents framework for inputs into the housebuilding process. A long-term objective is to ensure that up to 80% of manufactured inputs are locally produced.
Partnerships – We can achieve much more collectively, than any single player can individually. The Fund aims to build strong partnerships with a broad church of institutions and agencies to maximize this opportunity. We will work with existing and new partners in the Building Materials Industry offering where appropriate guaranteed purchase commitments thus enabling critical access to capital for investment in new.
People – Through the Investments we make, The Fund will equip a new generation of young Nigerians with high-level skills in modern methods of construction and technologies.
