Federal Government has began the pilot phase of the National Housing Programme (NHP) with the sum of N35 billion, as part of efforts to boost the supply of affordable housing units across the country.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, announced this at the 3rd United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador.
Fashola said the housing programme would bridge the huge housing gap in the country, create thousands of jobs, as well as ensure sustainable and affordable homes for the beneficiaries.
“In order to remove the inhibitions and obstacles to the supply of affordable housing units, and to bridge the huge housing gap, we have recently embarked on developing a sustainable National Housing Programme that will form the bedrock for aggressively reducing the housing deficit in Nigeria.
“Its critical features are responsiveness to the needs of the end users based on surveys, affordability analysis and income differences; responsiveness to cultural and climatic diversity; responsiveness to local economic needs; and focus on the SMEs and cottage industries as drivers of building inputs like doors, windows, plumbing and electrical fittings; and piloting and validating the concept by starting small with N35bn ($115m) to prove it,” he said.
He said Federal Government’s priority interventions included, among others, increased investments in affordable housing, modern road infrastructure, highways, bridges and efficient transport networks.
