Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
The federal government yesterday disclosed that there was no 20 million national housing deficit in the country as being raised in certain quarters.
The government, however, said that though, Nigeria has housing challenges, it is a universal problem across the countries of the world.
The Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fasola, made this disclosure in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, while speaking with journalists at the end of a capacity-building workshop for federal controllers of lands and housing in the country.
The theme of the training is “learning and development for greater stature”.
Fashola revealed that the ministry had removed the mandatory 10 per cent equity contribution before accessing loan from the National Housing Funds (NHF).
He said: “First of all, I don’t believe in that 20 million housing deficit number. Nobody has owned up to it. It is a number of no origin; I say so. So, the person who did that data should come up and take ownership of it.
“But that is not to say that there is no housing challenge; we have it; every country in the world has it. Its level and degree is a function of so many things. It is perhaps, more pronounced in the urban centres as it is in the rural areas. But even in the urban centres, there are still empty houses even where there is a problem of shelter”.
The minister further explained: “What we are doing is to try and complete ongoing projects that we met. We have started our own national housing programme. The idea is to design a product that Nigerians accept and can afford.
“One of the reasons why we have a number of empty buildings and houses is that some of these buildings are acceptable or are not affordable or both. So we are trying to create a model that will be acceptable for the people.
“Some of the other thing we are doing is to grant funding for people who contribute to the National Housing Fund (NHF) by way of mortgage; that is happening. We are improving access by reducing the amount you have to contribute. Those who wanted to borrow up to N5 million for example, their equity contribution was about 10 percent”.
He also said: “We know that some people will not have N500, 000 to contribute and deposit, we have removed that. They can borrow and what they should have contributed is now capitalised into what they will pay.
“That opens the door of access. You are not denied because you did not have the fund to self-contribute. We have also reduced the amount of which you are borrowing N5 million and above from 15 percent down to about 10 percent”.
The minister however, called on the federal controllers to continue to be good ambassadors of the government and the ministry in their efforts to ensure good delivery of government projects in their respective states.
According to him, doing this would go a long way in accelerating the socio- economic growth of the nation.
Fashola equally sated that the people of the country have been expecting good governance, noting that the only way out was to work in line with their schedule of projects as directed by the ministry.
He, therefore, urged them to make use of the skills garnered during the training to develop the ministry so as to move the nation forward.
Also commenting on the power to revoke licenses of Discos, Fashola said: “The power to regulate Discos rests with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), not in the ministry. It is a power vested by law. So, the ministry cannot interfere with that power. It is a statutory power.
“The ministry is only saddled with policy directive which I have given in documents, letters and all of that. Don’t forget that before the privatisation, the ministry had well over 50,000 staff. The staff strength of the ministry is now 779”.
