BY JUDE NJOKU

Property development heavyweight, Messrs, UACN Development & Property Development Company Plc last week, added to its Abuja property portfolio,with the commissioning of another ultra-modern estate. The estate which was christened Emerald Court sits on a 19676.770 square metres plot (1.9 hectares) of land in the FCT.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr. Anthony Ozodinobi, an Engineer, explained that Government’s thirst for improving infrastructure provision as a basic tool for the provision of housing, propelled it to initiate the land swap programme to provide the needed infrastructure for more districts in the FCT.

He disclosed that an altruistic National Housing Policy which seeks to solve the housing problems in the country, has been domesticated by the present administration for social transformation.

Emerald Court

In order to arrest the increasing gap in the supply and demand for housing especially in Abuja, the Minister tasked the government and all its agencies as well as the private sector to set up the machinery to provide more affordable housing to homeless Nigerians.

Advocating a total overhaul of the housing delivery system in Nigeria, Senator Mohammed, stressed the need for stakeholders in both the public and private sectors to establish a proactive synergy which will key into the government’s transformation agenda as it relates to the housing sector.

Also speaking at the occasion, UACN’s Managing Director, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran said Emerald Court was completed in 14 months.  He expressed the willingness of UPDC to partner with the government in the quest to provide housing for the citizenry.

Mr. Ogunniran who decried the cost of sourcing lands for housing projects in the country, prayed the FCT Minister to consider allocating sizeable expanses to the company to build more houses in the FCT

In his own remarks, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Housing and Habitat Hon. Aminu Usman  enjoined stakeholders especially in the finance sector to collaborate with the government to provide shelter to the teeming Nigerian masses.

Emerald Court is a 44 unit low-density estate located on about 19,000 square metre land in Gudu – Abuja. The estate comprises 14 units of four-bedroom semi-detached houses with boys quarters, 22 units of four-bedroom terraces with boys quarters, and eight units of three bedroom flats maid‘s room.

To ensure the comfort of residents, it said some facilities had also been provided on the estate. They include: swimming pool, gym room, children‘s playground, sewage treatment plant, borehole and water treatment plant, burglar alarm system, and public power supply and standby generator