The managements of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and Family Homes Funds Limited (FHF), Monday, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of 1, 000 housing units for the low income earners.
The project, which is sited in Bwari, a community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is the phase one of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s 300,000 units of the social housing project.
At the signing ceremony in Abuja, the Managing Director of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Senator Gbenga Ashafa, said the project would start by the end of November, stating that the Family Homes Funds Limited would fund it.
Ashafa, who said the land for the project was the only equity provided by FHA, stated that the three bedroom would go for as low as N3.5million.
He said: ” We are looking at the end of November when all preparations must have been completed in the field, that is, on the Bwari site and the second level of agreement has been signed (for the take off).
“The project is targeted at the low and middle income earners. To start with, we are looking at 1000 housing units and for now, the lowest three-bedroom is going to be N3.5million according to the FHA and Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN’s) discussions.
“For now, the funding of the project will come from the Family Homes Funds Limited but we are leaving the land as our own equity. Our contribution is the land”.
Also speaking, FHFL Managing Director, Mr Femi Adewole, said the project would produce houses as low as N2 million to Nigerians, adding that when it kicks off, it would also provide 1.8 million jobs for women and young Nigerians.
He said:” We are having a partnership with the Federal Housing Authority, it has perhaps, more land than anybody else for housing in this country. And the Family Homes Funds has a target to produce 300, 000 homes for Nigerians on low income.
“For that, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Federal Ministry of Finance has made available an initial capital of N200billion towards the execution of that capital. What we want to do is to deploy some of those capital into sites that are owned by the Federal Housing Authority to produce homes for Nigerians on very low income.
“I want to say that those homes are targeted at the people that can buy for N2 million for the one bedroom flat, then about N2.5 million, N2.75 million for the two bedroom flat and N3.5, N3.25 million for the three bedroom flat.
“So we’re absolutely determined to ensure that Nigerians with low income and young people have access to homes that they can afford. But it’s beyond what we see, this programme will also create jobs, for every home that is produced, about six jobs will be created. So, we’re looking at about 1.8 million jobs for young people, for women, for people who are currently out of work”.