FG, shelter Afrique sign partnership to construct 5,000 housing units
President Bola Tinubu’s government has partnered Shelter Afrique Development (ShafDB) to deliver 5000 housing units to provide housing for Nigerians.
The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, announced this during a briefing on the ministry’s achievements within one year in office.
“Under the partnership, the Pan-African housing institution will support the Renewed Hope Program with advisory services and financing of competent developers.
“We are looking at about 5,000 housing units in the pilot scheme. This will be the first time the ministry is entering into such a practical and direct partnership with a multi-lateral institution for the construction of homes for Nigerians.
“Nigeria is the second largest shareholder in ShafDB after Kenya with over 29 million US dollar share subscription,” he said.
Mr Dangiwa vowed to explore all possible housing financing options to tackle the massive housing deficit that faced the country. He said an action plan was developed per Mr Tinubu’s priorities and deliverables upon assuming office.
He said the action plan was to guide the ministry in implementing reforms and initiatives to increase access to affordable housing and unlock the potential in the housing sector.
Mr Dangiwa said progress was made in fixing issues on the Federal Land Information System (FELIS), adding that the digital system was created to centralise records on federal government land.
The minister said substantial progress had also been made in increasing Nigerians’ affordable and decent housing stock. He recalled the groundbreaking for 6,612 housing units across 13 locations nationwide under the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme.
He said the houses, once completed, Nigerians could own them through a broad range of affordable ownership options, like single-digit and up to 30-year mortgage loans provided by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
Mr Dangiwa said that over the past months, over 47,605 local and abroad Nigerians had created accounts on the ‘Renewed Hope’ housing portal indicating interest in homeownership.
“In fact, over the last two weeks alone, over 250,000 Nigerians have visited the website. We received a total of 8,925 Expression of Interest. This comprises 1,294 for Outright Purchase, 2,408 for Mortgage, 2,184 for rent-to-own and 3,039 for Instalment payment.
“We have released the 1st batch of Offer of Provisional Allocation Letters for Outright Payment for successful applicants and keys issued to some of them,” Mr Dangiwa added.
According to him, those who applied to own the homes via mortgage weee currently being processed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).
He said the ministry planned to do a groundbreaking for 2,000 housing unit Renewed Hope Cities in Lagos and 1,500 housing units in Renewed City in Kano through PPP and FMBN next month.
According to the minister, land has also been acquired in Enugu and Borno to build 2,000 housing units in Renewed Hope City in each location under a PPP arrangement.
Mr Dangiwa said other planned locations for the cities included Nasarawa (2,000 units) and Rivers (2000 units).
(NAN)
