The Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola has faulted claim that Nigeria has 17million housing deficit.
Fashola noted that the 17million housing deficit being quoted was grossly over bloated.
According to him, the level of housing deficit suddenly jumped to 17 million “and government is wondering who is behind this.”
Fashola spoke at the commissioning of the Woodhill Estate, being built by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) Cooperative Housing Development Loan in Abuja.
The Minister noted that it was important as a nation and as a people that “if we don’t have a common understanding of our problems we will find it more difficult to develop a common solution.”
He said there was housing deficit no doubt, “but the problem is more pronounced in the urban area than the rural areas; even in the urban centres where there is deficit there are empty houses across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos, Port Harcourt , Onitsah, Asaba, there are empty houses all over the major urban centres of Nigeria.”
He noted that the agency denied ever giving the 17 million housing deficit figure when he asked.
“We were still struggling with the homogenous number and it now jumped up again, and we begin to wonder who is behind these figures,” he said.
He noted that if Nigerians were counting the number of housing deficit, they should also count the number of empty houses.
He said, “I leave Nigerians to think through this because I have thought through it myself. There is a problem that is why we are here, how big the problem is I disagree with the estimate and I ask those who brought out that number to prove it by evidence”.
He added, “About three weeks ago, the FCT said they will undertake an audit of all the empty houses. This is what federal mortgage bank, corporative are solving. They also speak to the question of affordability. This leaves a lot of questions hanging, do we consult the owners before we build for them, do we know what they want, in many instances the empty houses are either too big or too small or a combination of both, or either too expensive to meet the wallet of the house taker.
“Because of our strategic partnership with corporative FMBN and the government are addressing the problem of affordability. You will hear of 150 houses ready meaning they are affordable for those who are ready.
“You will hear that 77units have been delivered meaning there is no waiting list for a house that has been paid for, therefore corporative have become a very critical tools in these government.
The Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa said the FMBN was encouraged to revamp its cooperatives housing development loan that advances construction loans to housing cooperatives.
He said that Woodhill Estate is the first estate that will be commissioned by FMBN out of many that were nearing completion. (The Nation)
