ABUJA – The Federal Government announced, yesterday, that it was planning to raise over N800 million from the African Development Bank, the World Bank and other institutions to provide affordable mass housing accommodation for Nigerians.
The Chief Executive Officer of Family Homes Funds, FHF, Femi Adewole, who announced this in Abuja during the fund-raising/launching of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, REDAN, explained that the fund is meant to provide housing for low-income Nigerians.
According Adewole: “The Family Home Funds is a housing investment fund owned by the Sovereign Wealth Fund and the Ministry of Finance Incorporating. It was set up primarily to finance housing for Nigerians who are on low income. That is interpreted as Nigerians who are earning below N100, 000 per month as a household.
As I said earlier, we are doing this in two ways. We are providing finances for developers who will build homes ranging from N2.5 million to N5 million. And in addition to that we are providing some assistance to the buyers of those houses. We are giving them deferred loans up to 40 percent of the cost of the houses. We are talking to a lot of development partners. We are at very advanced discussion for approvals. We need a lot of money for houses to achieve 500,000 homes(target). And that money is not going to come from the Federal Government of Nigeria alone. “So, we are developing partnership with a whole range of development institutions, and the African Development Bank, AfDB and the World Bank are just two of institutions that we are talking to and who are providing support for us. On funds realised so far, he said: “It is a commercial secret. So, for now I think we should not dwell on it because we have a long way to go. We have to raise about N800 million. To date we have a strong commitment of over $200 million. The funds have been running only in the last 45 months. We have invested over N20 billion into five housing projects which are ongoing”. Adewole disclosed that some of the locations for the housing are in Kaduna, Kano, Lagos and Delta states. He, however, assured Nigerians that before the end of December, over 200 houses would have been completed. Speaking earlier, President of REDAN, Ugochukukwu Chime, emphasised on the readiness of the body to work in collaboration with stakeholders in the housing sector to move the sector to a higher pedestal. According to him: “It is our sincere responsibility to work with stakeholders in the housing sector to ensure that we move away from the learning curve to a higher pedestal of project feasibility, execution and closure. Knowledge is light and learning/training is key to understanding the dynamics of the business of real estate, and also an instrument to wipe out ignorance.” Chime said that the house project will cost N500 million and expected to be “partially completed and occupied in one year and fully completed, equipped and furnished in two years”. He apealled to the Federal Government through the instrumentality of the Family Homes Funds to simplify the requirements and participation for willing Nigerians. Chime added that: “Concentration on demand induced supply based on market forces has not yielded the desired dividends because of the value chain and transaction dynamics that will produce such effective linkage is none existent.”
