By Chris Ochayi

…As Shelter Afrique offers to support sector with $100 million
THe Federal Government at the weekend said it had concluded arrangements to secure a sum of N48 billion, ($300) from the World Bank under the International Development Agency, IDA, credit facility for the establishment of a Mortgage Refinancing Company with a view to creating mortgages in the housing sector.

Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Amma Pepple who disclosed this during her presentation at the 2013 Ministerial briefing in Abuja, said the Federal Government was seeking for international cooperation as part of its efforts to address housing deficit facing the nation. Ms. Pepple also disclosed that an international conglomerate, the Shelter Afrique was extending $100 million credit facility to support housing development in Nigeria.

She said the $100 million facility would be facilitated through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN. The minister noted the Shelter Afrique had approved the opening of its first regional office in Abuja, which according to her will become operational in 2013 to ensure smooth utilization of the facility.

She said further that the Department for International Development, DFID, was proposing to inject a total sum of $700,000 for technical assistance to develop capacity in the housing sector of the country, stressing that assistance in the institutional and functional review of the ministry was aimed at achieving lasting institutional efficiency and effectiveness through sustainable and timely public service to Nigerians.

The minister who put the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of the ministry in the last two years at N3,099,032,199.48, explained that the revenue sources include tender fee, ground rent, premium on land, title registration fee, consent fee, C of O processing fee and survey fee.

Ms. Pepple said during the period under review, the housing sector contributed its own quota to job creation through the employment of 1, 568,286 persons in the country.

“The housing and urban development sector is recognized worldwide as being the immensely valuable in terms of job creation because the construction of housing units requires the services of a pool of professionals such as architect, engineers, quantity surveyors, and artisans such as draughtsmen, bricklayers, electricians, iron benders, painters, tillers and various vendors.

“In addition, the sustainable funding of housing delivery promotes investments in the production of building materials and boost linked businesses, all of which help to increase employment generation in the economy.

“During the period under review, the sector contributed its own quota to job creation through the employment of 1, 568,286 persons in the ministry’s housing projects, those of its parastatals, and in the informal sector through the sale of building materials across the nation.”

She said the number is even larger if those employed in all the housing projects in the country are added into this pool.

On efforts to provide more houses for the citizenry, the minister said that her ministry is to build unity villages in the country, to a total of 10,000 units, in each of the six geo-political zones, in partnership with Cyrus Projects Nigeria Limited, a consortium of Nigerians in the Diaspora.

Under this agreement according to her, the ministry is currently funding the provision of infrastructure for the social housing component of the project in a pilot scheme in Lafia, Nasarawa State.