FG to Address 17m Housing Deficit Before May 2023, Says FHA MD

Emameh Gabriel

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Housing Authority of Nigeria(FHA), Senator Gbenga Bareehu Ashafa, has disclosed that the federal government would leave no stone unturned to address the estimated 17 million housing deficit in Nigeria before the end of the current administration on May 29, 2023.

This is as he said that there was no actual data of the housing deficit in Nigeria, adding that the Buhari administration has committed a lot of resources to reduce the level of housing deficit in the country for both low and high income earners.

 Ashafa made the disclosure yesterday at the soft launch of Expressview Estate Lugbe, a partnership project between Mixta Africa and the FHA in Abuja.

According to him, the data of housing deficit in Nigeria do not always capture unoccupied houses, just like the one flagged off in Lugbe which is sitting on a 1.5 hectare of land where 58 flats and might not be captured upon completion.

The FHA MD, who said the agency has just completed about 300 houses in Zuba for the low income earners, added that a lot of houses have been delivered to Nigerians within a short period of time.

“What the Honourable Minister of Work and Housing have been saying right from onset, we’ve not been able to come up with a specific figure. However, look at the project we are embarking on now. Are we counting it? Look at the number of unoccupied houses. Are we counting them?

“If you go round, you will see a lot of unoccupied houses because of the amount of money they have put on them. We know that we have a lot of work to do but the Buhari’s APC administration is doing a lot to ensure that we reduce the number of Housing deficits in the country.

“It is part of the promise and manifesto of our party and the promise of President Muhammadu Buhari. So, we are not just providing houses on one level. We have three levels in the mass housing that we must cater for them.

“We have the lower, middle income earners and this protection is for the upper income earners. They are Nigerians too. You can’t expect someone who is earning N30, 000 to buy a house of N25 million.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of the FHA Mortgage Bank, Hayatudeen Awwal, said the partnership with Mixta Africa will transform the Expressview Estate in Lugbe.

“Any development in Lugbe along the road, is for the Federal Housing Authority. Lugbe belongs to the federal housing authority. We delivered Gwarinpa, Karu, Maitama, Asokoro, Kubwa Estates and now we are here. The entire project will be funded to deliver Houses with ease. We carefully selected the partners. We would have commissioned the project but the mask on the plot of land delayed the process,” Awwal said.

Country Director, Mixta Africa, Sade Hughes, who also spoke at the event said the developer has been leading the development of Africa, adding that it decided to expand their business to Abuja with partnership with FHA Mortgage Bank.

In his remarks,  Mixta Executive Director of Legal and Corporate Services, Ugochukwu Ndubuisi said the partnership was a welcome development as Mixta Africa takes pride in building communities.

“We have built properties in Lagos and Port Harcourt and now, we are in Abuja and we will use the Expressview Estate project in Lugbe to showcase our capability. We will complete this project on time and move to other ones,”  Ndubuisi said.