Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni yesterday in Damaturu laid the foundation stone for the construction of 3,600 housing units to be built across the 17 local government areas of the state. The houses, comprising two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments, will be built within 18 months and will have facilities like schools, places of worship, police outposts, fire service stations.
The houses will be financed by family homes funds for the benefit of low income earners.
“As we all know, shelter is a basic human need. Everyone needs a roof over their heads, a place they can call home. Along with other important human needs such as clean water and sanitation, healthcare, security, etc., shelter plays an important role in achieving peace and prosperity.
This is why the Yobe State Government is keen to ensure that on a continuous basis, our people have access to safe and affordable housing”, he said. He said the housing finance company would shoulder the responsibility of providing compensation to the people whose land would be used to build the houses across the 17 local government areas.
He urged the State Housing and Property Development Corporation and the Ministry of Land and Housing to effectively supervise the contractors that would handle the project, asking the contractors and suppliers to ensure modest and competitive pricing so that all materials needed are sourced or supplied locally within the state”, he said.
The Managing Director of Family Homes Funds Ltd, Femi Adewole, represented by the company’s head of projects management, Dr Sa’id Alkali Kori, commended Buni for the efforts towards building the houses, saying it would provide an opportunity for many low and medium income earners who could not afford houses of their own “to soon be living under the roofs of their own homes”.
