PROPERTY NEWS

Minister of State in the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhre, has said that the presidential mandate to her ministry to provide one million housing units before the end of the life of the present administration is very feasible.

She stated this in an interview with Daily Independent while on an inspection tour of facilities at the Banana Island, Lagos.

According to her, the Federal Government has already entered into an agreement with a consortium of developers to construct 400,000 housing units annually under the Public Private Partnership Imitative (PPP).

The minister noted that the present administration was committed towards the provision of one million housing units for low and medium income earners before the end of the tenure of the present administration as part of its efforts to make housing available and affordable to the average Nigerian. She added that it was possible for the administration to achieve more than the projected one million housing units.

Ekpiwhre pointed out that government has entered into an agreement with the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) with the aim of providing about 400,000 housing units annually. She added that the association was their chief partners in the efforts at realising the objective.

She said that already the government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a South African company that would bring in Hydrafone machines that would produce bricks for building of houses. She added that this initiative would produce about 400,000 housing units yearly.

The minister said that with involvement of other real estate developers in the initiative it, was clear that the provision of one million housing units before the end of the present administration was achievable.

Ekpiwhre noted that with the PPP initiative, the Federal Government has begun a new site and services scheme in which the government will provide the land and infrastructure while private developers would be responsible for the development of their plots.

According to her, the Federal Government was using the Banana Island initiative as a test case to raise funds for the purpose of using such profits to create new housing estates that would be within the reach of the low income earners.

She, however, added that the exact location of the new estate could not be disclosed immediately but that it was certaint that the Federal Government would build affordable estates for low income earners.

The minister said that the Banana Island pilot project, which consists of 540 serviceable plots covering 176.49 hectares of land, road network of about 29km, and state of the art water treatment plant with installed capacity of 100 cubic metres of water per hour in addition to uninterrupted power supply was a sight to behold.

According to her, the Banana Island project was meant for the rich, pointing out that money generated from the sale of the plots would be used to develop estates for the low and medium income earners.

Her words: I can boldly say that the Banana Island housing initiative which is the first attempt at public private partnership through contractor financing is huge success. One of the major constraints of housing delivery is the provision of infrastructure, which gulps about 40 per cent of the total cost of building. What the government has done in the Banana Island project is to provide land and infrastructure.

Ekpiwhre frowned at the emergence of shanties at the foreshore end of the estate describing such development as an embarrassment to the concept of the estate.

According to her, owners of plots of lands on which the shanties were erected would have such plots revoked if they do not take possession of their plots within a stipulated time.

She vowed to remove the shanties from the estate, adding that such a development was unacceptable for the concept of the estate.