Housing: Tinubu Writes Nigerians, Assures Them OF Plan To Guarantee Nice And Affordable Accommodation
■ We promised a programme built on a national scale, 100,000 homes in all, with 50,000 in the first phase
By PHC Telegraph
President Bola Tinubu has said that he remains committed to the execution of a national housing policy that would enable more Nigerians to have roofs over their heads.
The pledge to tackle existing shortfalls in the housing sector is contained in statement personally signed by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces which has been released in Abuja by the Presidency.
In it, the Nigerian leader assured the people of their right to decent accommodation, saying under the Renewed Hope Agenda action is being taken to enhance the nation’s housing stock.
“That is what I promised for our housing sector”, President Tinubu said of his plan to grow Nigeria’s housing stock, “and that is what is now being delivered.”
According to him, Renewed Hope was never charity. It is the right of every Nigerian to a place called home.”
Below is the full text of the President’s comment on the housing sector:
“When I placed the Renewed Hope Agenda before Nigerians, I did not speak of housing in vague terms. I gave my word that this administration would work to make decent homes affordable again, and that a hardworking family, after years of paying rent, would finally have a path to a house of its own.
“Let me account for that promise plainly, by juxtaposing what we pledged beside what we have actually achieved.
“We promised a programme built on a national scale, 100,000 homes in all, with 50,000 in the first phase through cities of 1,000 units in every geopolitical zone and the Federal Capital Territory, and estates of up to 500 units in the remaining 30 states.
“What stands today is no longer a drawing. We broke ground on more than 3,000 homes at Karsana in Abuja, the 2,000-unit city at Ibeju-Lekki in Lagos has reached advanced completion with sales already underway, and across the country, more than 15,000 units are rising as I write this.
“A house does not begin at its walls, and we refused to govern as though it did. We promised to confront the foundation, the tools and the cost of building itself.
“So we have moved to title land that sat for generations as dead capital, working with the World Bank to lift this nation from fewer than one plot in ten formally registered toward one in two.
“We have strengthened the framework that governs equipment leasing, so that a builder or contractor can secure the machines a project needs with legal certainty and the confidence of those who finance them, and no site stands idle for want of a crane.
“And,we have published uniform prices on our homes, so that no Nigerian pays a bribe to learn the cost of a roof, while raising materials hubs in all six zones so that we build with our own hands and our own resources.
“But a home that is built and cannot be bought is only a monument, and on this point, Nigeria has stumbled for decades. So, we turned to the question of money.
“Through the MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund, 1,859 families across 25 states have now drawn ₦128 billion in mortgages, fixed at 9.75 per cent and repayable over 20 years, terms our people were told for a generation they would never see.
“Through Family Homes Funds, we have kept faith with the poorest, housing widows and low-income earners, under a mandate to reach 500,000 homes and the 1.5 million jobs that rise with them.
“I will not stand before you and declare the work finished, because it is not. The housing deficit this nation carries is counted in the millions, and it will take years of steady labour to close, and I would rather say that to you plainly than flatter you with a lie.
“But the difference now is real. For the first time in a generation, the whole housing value-chain is moving together: the land and its title, the building, the materials, the equipment, the finance, and the family at the end of it, and no part waits idle on another.
“Housing has moved from a welfare conversation to a national growth strategy. Real estate and construction now sit among Nigeria’s major GDP contributors, proving that every affordable home financed is also a factory order, a labour contract, a mortgage asset, a household balance sheet and a contribution to national output.
“That is what I promised for our housing sector, and that is what is now being delivered. Renewed Hope was never charity. It is the right of every Nigerian to a place called home.”
Bola Ahmed Tinubu
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
@officialABAT