- Fashola Raises Panel to Restructure FHA
Power, Works and Housing Minister Mr. Babatunde Fashola has set up an ad-hoc committee to review the re-structuring and commercialisation of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).
Fashola urged the committee to review the FHA Restructuring and Commercialisation/Housing Sector implementation Framework presented to him at a meeting with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
BPE’s Director of National Facilities and Agricultural Resources Mr. Yunana Jackdell Malo, in the letter convening the committee meeting, said the panel would entertain concerns, issues and recommendations which might form the basis of a revised implementation framework for FHA’s restructuring and commercialisation.
A document obtained listed the committee’s terms of reference to include: distilling the new reform vision for the housing sector as articulated by the Minister; review the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) approved implementation framework to better align it with the minister’s policy direction and objectives for the housing sector; review aspects of the various work streams in the implementation framework to ensure that they are fit for purpose and revisit key elements of the restructuring and commercialisation strategy, and to make recommendations on how they could be better implemented, particularly with regards to new housing policy and skills mix, property audit and the privatisation of FHA Mortgage Bank.
Others include reviewing the possibility of implementing the NCP approved strategy without necessarily repealing the FHA Act and be guided by legal advice in that regard; review the relevant aspects of the on-going housing sector reforms and make necessary recommendations, particularly with respect to the setting up of a regulatory regime and how FHA can play an effective role in a regulated and liberalised housing sector.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Abu Gusau Magaji, has urged FHA workers not to entertain fears of losing their jobs.
Speaking at a meeting with the Authority’s management, he explained that rather than job losses, the planned process would throw up more vacancies through the expected expansion of the Authority’s capacity to become an efficient, modern and profitable venture.
Magaji said the need for a review of the previous reform document generated by the BPE arose because it had become necessary to align it with the vision and policies of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for the sector.
He said the exercise would be conducted on the basis of existing presidential approval, adding that both the Ministry and the Authority were being accommodated in the development of work streams that would lead to the emergence of a new FHA.
Members of the committee are Yunana J. Malo – Sector Director/Co-ordinator (BPE); M. L. Halilu; A. Koko, and P. O Egbodo, all representing the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. The FHA is represented by Ayuba Aliyu, Hajara Kadiri, and Umar S. Gonto. Sanusi Abdu-Ali, Nurain Hassan Ibrahim, Pene Samaki, and Guful John Mankilik, are representatives of the BPE. Abba Sani Dauda, also from the BPE, will serve as Secretary.
