Nigeria: Over 1,094 houses built under National Housing Project, says Fashola

Nigerian Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola said that over 1,094, housing units have been completed under the National Housing Project from the 2019 budget, according to a news report by Vanguard.

Fashola said this statement during an oversight visit to the ministry by the Senate Committee on Housing led by its Chairman, Sen. Sam Egwu, on Thursday in Abuja.

The purpose of the visit for Fashola was to present a summary of how the 2019 budget allocated to the housing sector was utilized.

The minister said that out of the N83.661 billion budget presented to the Federal Government, only N33.4 billion was released to the Ministry of Works and Housing, which is only 39 percent financial support from the government to the housing sector.

Fashola said, "Our two main parastatals are the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) whose responsibility is to grow primary mortgage funding and manage the national housing fund."

"This was created by the act of parliament and its purpose is to provide the financial support for the purpose of achieving affordable housing objectives of the government," he added.

According to Fashola, two states, Lagos and Rivers are not building because of land issues.

According to him, the ministry has inaugurated a cooperative housing policy in association with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).

He told that this policy will enable citizens to get low-interest loans from FMBN and encouraged Nigerians to build for themselves instead of waiting for government.