Time to own homes is here as FHF unveils low cost houses at N1.8m/unit

For low income earning Nigerians desiring to own homes, time to do so has come as The Family Homes Funds (FHF) has unveiled housing project plan that will deliver low cost homes aimed at addressing low cost housing gap in the country.

The Funds, which also unveiled a housing portal at an event in Abuja recently, presented samples of the low cost homes each of which is to cost N1.4 million and N1.8 million for the 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units respectively. But these prices exclude financing and infrastructure costs.

Introducing the homes, FHF’s managing director, Femi Adewole, reasoned that except there was a project like that, it would be difficult for low income earners to have decent roof over their heads.

“If we are going to build a strong economy, if we are going to realise our undoubted potential, we can’t be paying lack lustre attention to the predicament of such a large section of our population or avoiding it because it is difficult. It will be like trying to fight with one hand tied behind our back.

“That is why this government rightly committed to the difficult job of lifting this section of our population out of poverty. The mass housing programme, now branded Social Housing Programme, is an important element of that,” Adewole explained.

These houses are part of the federal government’s economic sustainability plan (ESP) conceived to cushion the biting effects of the current economic crisis. The housing project is a N200-billion social housing initiative to build 300,000 affordable housing units for citizens.

The initiative, being funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with 20 of the 36 states of the federation already indicating interest to participate in the housing scheme has taken off.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity (Office of the Vice President), Laolu Akande, listed the states which had already keyed into the initiative as Osun, Ogun, Enugu, Delta, Bauchi, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Plateau, and the FCT, saying that the first set of construction sites had been mapped out already.

Other states which he said were putting machinery in place to participate in the initiative are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Cross River, Sokoto, Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Borno and Yobe States.

Akande explained that under the ESP social housing plan, 300,000 low cost houses would create 1.8 million jobs in the housing sector and beyond, adding that the scheme was approved by both President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Executive Council.

On his part, Adewole explained that the experiment towards inclusive housing was embarked upon for three reasons. First is to test assumptions about the feasibility of building a home at this threshold cost and seeing what it will look like.

Second reason is to test acceptability with potential occupiers and housing professionals should draw on their feedback to adapt and continuously improve. The third reason is to show that it’s not easy, but its possible.

The Online Portal, according to him, was launched to do a number of things the first of which would be to enable the Funds to allocate housing in an open and transparent way. “Individuals can log on to the site to register interest in specific projects. For those who are not able to navigate modern technology, we will collaborate with other partners including mortgage banks and cooperative society groups to provide assistance,” he assured.

Secondly, the portal would provide opportunity for group of young professionals with qualification, skills or experience in building and construction to register interest in participation as SME Partners.

Typically, SME Partners will be given the opportunity to build about 20 – 30 housing units initially going on to larger opportunities as they grow. The Funds expects to hire about 6000 SME Delivery Partners during the life of the project.

Finally, the portal will provide opportunity for local manufacturers of building materials such as doors, windows, ironmongery etc to register interest in participation as bulk suppliers into the project. This will help the Funds to achieve one of the project objectives of ensuring up to 90 percent local inputs by 2021. It will have the opportunity to revitalize parts of the manufacturing sector and create more jobs.