Govt Moves to End Abandoned Projects’ Syndrome in Housing Sector, Warns Contractors

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The federal government has read the riot act to some contractors handling its housing projects nationwide to expedite work, noting that henceforth there will be no more abandoned buildings in construction sites across Nigeria.

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, who spoke when he toured some project sites in Abuja, noted that the capacity of companies currently handling government projects in the housing will also be reviewed.
Some of the projects inspected were the Karsana Housing Scheme, comprising condominiums of several units of flats and the 1,250 units being built in collaboration with Brains and Hammers at Deidei, Abuja.

Dangiwa maintained that the government would no longer tolerate cases of abandoned housing projects in the country when several millions of Nigerians were in need of shelter.
The minister explained that all the complaints by contractors, including a vall for review of the contracts, due to rising prices of building materials will be considered after  thorough discussions.
“On the aspect of the abandoned housing projects in the country, what we are telling most of the contractors is that we would no more tolerate any abandoned projects.

“We intend to recoup the investments put in by the government, so all abandoned construction sites, we are inviting all the developers to come and have a sit-down with us, so we can know the reasons why they abandoned such projects.
“Some of the developers or contractors we realised do not have the managerial or financial capacity.

“These are some of the developers we would edge out and bring serious ones for the construction to take off because at the end of the day, we want to ensure that Nigerians are better for it because there are millions of Nigerians that need houses,” he stated.
Dangiwa warned that the government would not entertain any substandard work in the present administration, explaining that there may be no new projects without old ones being completed.

On variation in prices of materials that had affected the delivery time of the houses, Dangiwa advised the developers to engage the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).
He added that once the ongoing projects, many of which have reached advanced stages are completed soon, the commencement of work, including the construction of six megacities, one in each geopolitical zone of the country will commence.

Dangiwa added that Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with some of the developers was still on course.
“ In FCT, we are thinking about 10,000 housing units because the off-takers are already on the ground, both high and low income earners,” he added, urging some dissatisfied contractors to approach their creditors.

“Contractors talking about a review of their contracts would have to engage the FMBN because I know that loans were given to them. If they couldn’t finish within time, then they would have to go and sit down with FMBN to explain why they couldn’t finish the projects within the stipulated time,” he noted.
In his remarks, the Managing Director, FMBN, Mr Madu Hamman, said the first phase of the project at the Brains and Hammers Estate should be ready for off-take by December.

He explained that of the entire estate of 1,250, the first phase of 800 units had been ‘packaged’ while the delivery of the 450 units will be concluded as early as the first quarter of 2024.
Some contractors on the sites had called for an upward review of contract prices, as some of the deals had lasted over five years and had been impacted by inflation.