Nigeria to Invest N500 Billion in Housing

• Nigeria to Invest N500 Billion in Housing

The Federal Government will invest N500 billion in Family Homes Fund (FHF) in the next five years to bridge housing deficit.

Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Mr Adeyemi Dipeolu, who was represented by Ms Imeh Okon, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Infrastructure, said the FHF project would be powered by the government but with private sector participation.

At the conference: “Innovative Financing of Affordable Housing’ with the sub-theme “Delivering Affordable Housing through Cooperatives’’.

Dipeolu said N100 billion FHF will be given out annually for the next five years.

“Government is giving FHF N100 billion yearly for the next five years with anticipation that it is going to leverage one trillion naira of private resources.”

“This money is essentially to help build social and affordable housing for Nigerians and in this situation, if you earn N30,000 you can be able to buy houses that will be under the FHF.”

According to him, some houses had been completed in Nassarawa state and another 3,000 to 6,000 were under construction across the country.

He further stated that the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing has completed more than 2,000 houses of 72 units across the country under the affordability index.

On the high mortgage, the special adviser said efforts are been made to ensure affordable mortgages, saying houses without mortgages will still be a challenge.

“Most of the mortgages that are being issued right now through the Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) to my understanding make these charges to cover their own administrative costs.”

“We have been told about these hidden charges and presently, we are working with the PMBs to see how we can reduce them to the barest minimum so that it will not impact on what the beneficiary has to pay in the long run.”