Minister unveils plan to solve Nigeria's 17 million housing need

Mr. Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, has revealed how he intends to solve Nigeria's 17 million housing need.

According to him, changes will be made to the relevant policies and budget under the current administration.

“The housing sector presents an enormous opportunity for positively impacting the economy to promote not only growth but inclusion. There have been a couple of National Housing policies and we intend to appraise the most current one to make changes only if necessary.

Government will lead the aggressive intervention to increase supply, by undertaking construction of public housing and formulate policies that will invariably lead to private sector participation and ownership to reduce our housing deficit.”

READ: Fashola to budget N10 billion for housing in 2016

He also announced that the model of ‘Jakande and Shagari’s housing estates will be studied in order to develop affordable housing units, with the help of the governors.

“If we achieve this, we will move from where we are now, start construction in all 36 States and the FCT and sustain this as we go along. In the housing sector, if we complete our on-going projects, and we get land from the Governors in all states and the FCT to start what we know, using the Lagos Home model, we should start 40 blocks of housing in each state and FCT.

“We expect State Governors to play a critical role here, by providing land of between 5-10 hectares for a start, with title documents, and access roads or in lieu of access roads, a commitment that they will build the access roads by the time the houses are completed."

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