FHA’s New Town development initiative promises 20,000 houses in Abuja
The Federal Housing Authority (FHA), the Federal Government agency charged with the responsibility of delivering decent and affordable housing for Nigerians, says that as part of efforts at providing the housing need of Nigerians, it is perfecting plans to develop 20,000 housing units in Abuja under its New Town initiative.
The authority which has delivered over 40,000 housing units across the six geo-political zones of the country, has a nember of programmes through which it delivers housing, including direct construction, public private partnership (PPP), co-operative and social housing, site and services, promotion of new town development and housing regeneration.
David Kpue, the Acting MD of the authority, disclosed in Abuja recently that they were presently targeting housing development that will deliver 1,200 units in the federal capital, pointing out that they had done profiling of off-takers so that they would deliver housing that Nigerians could afford and serve their need.
“We are in talks with trade unions, associations and co-operatives who have expressed interest to partner with us on this estate. In Bwari, we are planning a new town that will deliver up to 20,000 housing units; another new town is being planned for Kwali. All these efforts are geared towards reducing the housing needs in the country. We have developments all over the country under PPP arrangement and we have delivered 1,363 housing units under this arrangement”, Kpue revealed.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has announced that the authority would soon be commercialized. Akon Eyakenyi, the Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development who gave this hint recently, explained that the commercialization drive was to strengthen the authority so that it would be able to live up its responsibility.
“The government has put up a process to commercialise the FHA. This is to enable it achieve the objectives of its establishment. We will seek the right stakeholders that will make the authority able to stand on its own”, the minister said.
The immediate past managing director of the authority, Terver Gemade, had hinted that the authority would be commercialized, explaining that it was a continuation of a process that started in 1992 when the authority signed an agreement with the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialisation (TCPC), now Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
Gemade said that the ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development which supervises its operations was continuing the commercialization of the authority with the assistance of BPE, adding that the commercialization process was being supervised by a Technical Board of the authority instituted with the approval of The President.
Expectation is that when the authority is commercialized, it would no longer be just to build homes for people where they don’t need them, nor to build homes that are not affordable. The goal would rather be to get the target market and the housing demand; determine where and how people are going to acquire these houses and know ahead what the earning capacity of the people is.
Chuka Uroko