OPIC to construct 1,000 housing units annually, begins 3-year housing finance scheme

Prompted by rising population and desire to bridge wide gap of housing deficit ‎in Nigeria, Ogun state in particular, the Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC) is targeting construction of over 1000 housing units per annum for property buyers and investors as part of its urbanisation scheme.

The massive construction of housing units across the three senatorial districts of the state, according to OPIC, would developed for all classes of career workers, working in public and private sectors, in different categories, namely, low-cost, middle class and upper class ‎individuals, group of invididduals and corporate organisations, speading the payment plans to three-year tenure.

Speaking in Abeokuta about OPIC Advantage which is centred on three-year payment plans for housing units acquisition and housing plans on Tuesday, Babajide Odusolu, Managing Director, OPIC, stated that the desire of State-owned housing corporation was to break barriers preventing access to homes and property ownership through 30% initial deposit and three-year tenure, housing finances of various sizes and classes across the state.

Odusolu, who disclosed that dynamics of housing development and massive urbanisation currently undertaken across the three senatorial districts of the state was to expand the scopes of homes and property acquisition and ownership, said the “quasi rent-to-own scheme of OPIC was meant to increase housing facilities constructed and delivered for the people’s habitation at low cost and affordable cost.

He said, “In the past, the previous administrations, OPIC did not focus on housing development, what we focused on was to open up various estates and sell service plots to the people. So, if you are talking about lands, OPIC, in the last 30 years‎, sold well over 5,000 plots cumulatively to people, but if you talk about housing stocks, we probably developed 100 housing units within the first 28 years.

“However, with the last two years, under the Administration ‎of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, the dynamics and mindset have changed, now we focus not just on opening our various estates, but we also develop housing stocks. In the last two years, we have developed and we are still developing well over 2,500 housing units cumulatively in Agbara and Abeokuta.

“This year, we are going to deliver at least another 200 housing units, by the time MTR Gardens is done we will be delivering 1,000 units. Our goal is to get to the point where, on an annual basis, we can develop and deliver over 1,000 housing units across our various estates in the entire state.”

RAZAQ AYINLA