FG sees housing beyond basic need, recognizes growth impact
The Federal Government of Nigeria says housing delivery in any society goes beyond its ranking as a basic need of man (second to only food), pointing out that housing is vital to the socio-economic development of the society.
The government explains that housing constitutes an important element of wealth and job creation, noting that in some well developed economies, it contributes 50-70 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of goods and services arising from housing construction, housing financing and services and provision of basic urban infrastructure and services.
President Goodluck Jonathan made this observation at the commissioning of the 324-unit Elim Estate—a joint venture project between Enugu State government and MDP Project Limited—a subsidiary of Copen Group, and financed by Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) through the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme.
The president who was represented at the event by Namadi Sambo, the Vice President, revealed that government’s various housing programmes, especially the Nigerian Mortgage Re-Financing Company (NMRC), are aimed at ensuring that Nigerians, particularly workers, owned houses through the NHF.
According to the president, all government’s programmes have been developed and consistently pursued to promote home-ownership, reduce affordability gap in housing finance and ensure sustainable urbanisation for the benefit of Nigerians, adding, “in view of its importance to rapid social-economic development, we shall not relent in our efforts until we provide affordable and adequate shelter to citizens”.
Continuing, the president said that “the readiness of FMBN to provide mortgage facilities to contributors to NHF at 6 percent interest rate over a period of 30 years is a significant step in ensuring availability and affordability of mortgage to interested contributors and potential home owners”, advising that all Nigerians who wished to avail themselves of opportunity to purchase any of these buildings plus all workers in both public and private sectors to embrace the NHF scheme because of its usefulness.
The estate which sits on 7.8 hectares of land provided by Enugu State government is a mixed development, primarily targeted at addressing the needs of low and middle income earners. It comprises 128 units of one-bedroom terrace houses, 32 units of two-bedroom terrace houses, 89 units of two-bedroom flats, and 75 units of three-bedroom detached bungalows.
It is the fourth FMBN-financed project, through the Estate Development Loan (EDL), to be commissioned in the South East and South South regions of Nigeria.
Enugu State governor, Sullivan Chime, noted that the commissioning of the project marked another milestone in the collaboration between the state government, private estate developers and agencies of the federal government for the provision of affordable houses for all Nigerians, disclosing that his administration has so far developed six major housing estates all of which are fully occupied while new ones were on-going.
Regis Anukwuoji