The Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing, Senator Barnabas Gemade, says the committee will explore the possibility of helping the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to benefit from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s N30bn Real Estate Development Intervention Fund.
He said the fortunes of the FHA had been adversely affected by somersaults in government policies coupled with its removal from government funding, which had stacked the odds against the agency and abridged its ability to deliver on its mandate.
Gemade, who stated this in Abuja when he led his colleagues on an oversight visit to the organisation’s headquarters, said the committee would work with relevant agencies to fast-track the restructuring and commercialisation of the FHA.
The Managing Director, FHA, Mr. Mohammed Al-Amin, said there was a need to strengthen the organisation’s ability to deliver on its social housing mandate through special subventions and regular budgetary allocation.
He said the FHA had depended solely on Public-Private Partnerships to deliver houses since government funding for it had stopped.
Al-Amin also pleaded with the Senate committee to facilitate the completion of the ongoing reform process in the FHA by hastening work on the amendment of the law establishing it.
According to Gemade, urgent legislative action is required to fast-track the reform and commercialisation of the FHA, which has been ongoing since 1992.
