Nigeria needs 17 million houses to address deficit - Fashola

Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, has said that Nigeria needs 17 million houses to meet its housing deficit.

“Speaking during the commissioning of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and Sea Mountain 133 Housing Estate in Minna, Niger State, the minister said: “The ministry will continue to strive to ensure that the challenge of housing deficit, which has been put at about 17 million, is surmounted.”- Vanguard

“With a population of about 200 million and growing at an average rate of three percent per annum, coupled with an annual rural urban migration rate of over five percent, Nigeria is in need of about 720,000 housing units per annum. 

“Currently, the annual aggregate production is about 100,000 housing units, leaving a huge gap.” Fashola, who was represented by Minister of State in the Ministry, Alhaji Mustapha Shehuri, said the ministry planned to build mass housing units in every state of the federation for public workers annually in the next three years.

He noted that the plans had reached an advanced stage of implementation and called on workers to contribute to the National Housing Fund, NHF, to be house owners. According to him, the models have been designed and approved for each geo-political zone, while commending the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria for its efforts in meeting the challenge of housing deficit.

In his address, the Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Richard Esin, said the estate, which comprises 51 units of three bedroom bungalows and 82 units of two bedroom bungalows, cost N5 million for two bedroom semi-detached bungalows and N7 million for a three-bedroom fully detached bungalow.

Source: Vanguard