The Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola has reassured Nigerians of the Federal government’s commitment towards making home ownership easy and accessible to low and medium income earners in the country.
Fashola made this known at the opening ceremony of REDAN building Expo 2020 in Abuja on Tuesday at the Musa Yar’adua Conference Center.
According to him, government through various Ministries, Departments and Agencies is working assiduously towards coming up with favourable policies that will incorporate the interest of the Low and middle income earning class of the country in housing delivery.
In his words, “The Ministry has in the last one year (January 2019-January 2020) issued 1500 C-of-Os and 598 Consents to the general public and it is currently constructing mass housing in at least 34 States of the Federation that has provided land for that purpose.
Speaking further, he said “The Government is pursuing policies that would make home ownership and accessibility easy for the low and medium income earners. Schemes such as the Rent-to-Own Initiative, Rental Schemes and Cooperative Housing initiatives are part of the multi-pronged approaches to housing development being pursued and implemented by Government”
While commending the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria for organizing the expo, the Housing Minister who was represented by the Head of PPP in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Arc Eucheria Alozie said the theme of the expo was well thought as it aligns with the vision of the Buhari administration.
“The theme of this Building Expo which is “Consolidating the Ease of doing business in the Real Estate Industry, Is truly apt as it aligns with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council’s (PEBEC) launch of the fifth accelerator, the National Action Plan (NAP) 5.0 which is aimed at improving the Ease of Doing Business Reform and expected to run from 5th February-4 April, 2020. It was actually launched on 4th February, 2020” he said.
He however stated that through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Government has been able to eliminate the 10% equity contribution usually demanded for mortgages between #0 to #5 million, adding that transparency has been entrenched in all government activities, especially in the procurement process.
Just as he noted that government has commissioned a task team in the Ministry to conduct housing survey in some select States in each of the six geo-political zones to determine the housing needs as this is expected to compliment the effort of REDAN and other critical stakeholders and consolidate the ease of doing business, especially as it concerns the built industry.
