By Henry Umoru

THE Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development raked in a total sum of N1.3 billion in the year 2012 from ground rent charges and the issuing of certificates of occupancy, Cs of O.

This was disclosed by the Minister, Ms. Amal Pepple when she presented the scorecard of her ministry to members of the National Working Committee, NWC of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP led  by its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

The Minister explained that 62.7 percent of the total N41.9 billion budgeted for the Ministry in the 2013 budget estimates has been released to the ministry.

Giving a breakdown of the ministry’s achievements, Ms Pepple said it delivered 8,069 houses at affordable prices to the teeming public in 2012. The ministry also built 256 housing units under its prototype housing scheme in the same year.

The Minister regretted that frequent changes in the nomenclature of the ministry by previous administrations had adversely affected its operations.

The  ministry, she said is currently constructing six federal secretariats in different parts of the country at a total cost of N15, 284 billion. The he move  is to provide a befitting work environment for the country’s workforce. The secretariats are located at Awka, Yenegoa, Gombe, Nasarawa, Zamfara and Oshogbo in Osun state.

The minister disclosed that the ministry signed a total of 1,101 certificates of occupancy in 2012 while over 800 have been signed this year. She said that the ministry is working with the Presidential Committee on Land Reforms and other stakeholders to address issues of land administration.

According to her,  the ministry currently has a total of 626 housing unites under its Public Private Partnership arrangement and 850 housing units through the Federal Housing Authority, FHA.