PROPERTY NEWS

THE FEDERAL Government has appealed to contractors handling housing and road projects in the country to ensure timely completion and delivery of their projects. The Minister of State for Works, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs.Grace Ekpiwhre, gave the advice last Thursday at the site of ongoing Public Private Partnership (PPP) housing projects at Barnawa in Kaduna State. She noted that many people were waiting to buy and move into the houses, and enjoined the contractors to hasten works. She said, "Most of the houses are already sold. That tells you that people are ready and anxious to move in. So I enjoin the developers to hasten the process. Generally, we want to enjoin contractors that as soon as they are awarded government contracts, they should quickly mobilise to site and give adequate attention to the works to ensure that contracts are finished on schedule. This is because every contract has a time schedule, a time-frame for completion. So we enjoin contractors handling government projects nation wide, whether it is in the housing sector or the road sector that they should ensure that contracts are steadily delivered on schedule without compromising standards." She recalled that the government realised early in its inception that it could not single handedly provide housing for all the people, and quickly embraced the private sector, encouraging them to bring in their funds and expertise to work hand in hand with government to provide houses for Nigerians. She expressed optimism that the huge housing deficit would be closed using the present strategy. She called on more Nigerians to embrace the estate development business and partner with government to provide requisite houses. The minister commended the new housing estate in Barnawa, Kaduna State, saying: "The site is very beautiful, because the scene and the topography of the place makes me happy. I am happy that there are different types of houses, depending on the choice of the buyer. They can make choice based on the one they can afford. And, another thing they brought my attention to is the provision of schools, nursery and primary schools for children of residents in the estate. It is particularly very good. Children do not have to go outside the estate. I am very happy about that aspect." She appealed to Nigerian workers to ensure they contributed to the National Housing Fund (NHF) so that the mortgage institutions in the country could derive funds from it and lend to deserving workers. She stated: "Every where in the world, the issue is how to improve on mortgage facilities. It is only through mortgage that genuine salary earners at any level can acquire their houses." The PPP housing projects at Barnawa, Kaduna State has four estate developers building 311 units of one- to three-bedrooms houses. The developers are Archon Nigeria Ltd, Archistroi Nigeria Limited, Esmot Nigeria Limited, and Kasgama. Several of the houses have been completed while others have attained between 60 percent and 90 percent completion status.