FG Commences Delivery of 300,000 Mass Housing Units as FHA Signs MoU with FHFL

In commencement of the proposed 300,000 Mass Housing Programme initiated by the Federal Government of Nigeria under the Economic Sustainability Plan set up by the Government to boost the economy in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic and falling oil price, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and the Family Homes Funds (FHFL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aim at formalizing the cooperation between the two government agencies towards the delivery of affordable houses for Nigerians.

The Federal Housing Authority and Family Homes Funds have come together in a  partnership to deliver 1,000 affordable housing units to low income Nigerians.

This was disclosed on Monday during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the two organisations in Abuja.

Sen. Gbenga Ashafa, the Managing Director, FHA, while signing on behalf of his organisation, said the memorandum is towards the construction and delivery of 1,000 housing units at Bwari, Abuja, which will commence in Nov. 2020.

Ashafa said FHA remains committed to deploying robust partnership and collaboration with other focused public and private institutions to drive change and growth in the sector.

“For us at FHA, the overall objective of the partnership is to commence the first phase of delivery of 300,000 housing units, which President Muhammadu Buhari promised Nigerians.

“The FHA is proud to be the first public agency to key into this social housing vision of Mr President to deliver the first 1,000 housing units of the mass housing project,” he said.

Ashafa added that the partnership will also generate thousands of jobs for professionals, labourers, artisans,  suppliers, food vendors, transporters and several others in the value chain.

On his part, Mr Femi Adewole, Managing Director, Family Homes Funds said the partnership came about because FHA has more land than any other institution for housing in the country.

Adewole said Family Homes Funds has a target of 300,000 homes for Nigerians with low income, for which the Central Bank of Nigeria, through the Ministry of Finance, has made available an initial capital of N200 billion towards the execution.

“I want to say that those homes are such that people can buy for N2 million for the 1 bedroom,  about N2.5 to 2.75 million for the 2 – bedroom and  N3.5 to N3.25 million for the 3- bedroom,” he said.

Speaking on what the fund is doing to ensure that the process is not hijacked by unscrupulous people, Adewole said his organisation decided to deal with the issue by executing the programme on the back of partnerships with an outfit like FHA.

“We also deal with cooperatives. So, rather than individuals, people are being encouraged to form or join housing cooperatives where they know themselves.

“Since they are through cooperatives, it makes it very difficult for somebody who is not a member of the cooperative to come and basically usurp the system.

“Hence, we have built control measures in place, to ensure that we have cooperatives of commercial tricycle operators, cooperatives of mechanics, cooperatives of butchers and of market women, who know themselves, organise themselves.

“It is through these cooperatives that the houses will be distributed,” he said.

October 20, 2020