Bello reveals plans to build 5, 000 houses in 4yrs

FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has said that part of his mandate is to deliver 5, 000 affordable houses to residents of the territory within the next four years.

Malam Bello made the disclosure while inspecting the abandoned NLC/TUC mass housing project in Apo resettlement.

He noted that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is very keen to providing affordable houses for Nigerians.

“Even myself as FCT minister, part of my mandate is to build 5, 000 houses. President Muhammadu Buhari, all his life, has always been a man of the people and those who voted for him were workers, farmers and the petty traders; so I came here with my friend and brother, president of the NLC to see how it’s going because it will add value to their lives.

“The estate is in a very fine location and substantial work has been done. I have seen the challenges and I am confident that they shall be surmounted.

This is a very important project, not only to the workers, but also to President Buhari because part of his vision is to build affordable houses as many as possible.”

Chiding the contractor, the minister said that “you cannot say that you cannot build because infrastructure has not been provided. As a developer, you are supposed to deliver houses.

“What I have seen here is a project that is underfunded; a project that has collapsed and project that, maybe, the developer has not put in all that he is supposed to put in.

“But, you should not just sit down and say we are waiting for infrastructure. Certain infrastructure cannot even be put in place until you finish your project.”

Bello however, reiterated the commitment to completing the project, adding that “honestly, I want to support you to finish this project, but we have to sit down and tell ourselves the truth.

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What is the cost of the project, how much is the developer bringing, how much is Federal Mortgage Bank bringing, how much is the cost of the infrastructure?

“At least, you can finish some of the houses that are near the arterial road, do it in phases because I think the scale is very massive which is why it is facing challenges.

“What I know is that major projects like this, the FCDA or the federal government is to provide major arterial road, networking is usually supposed to be done by the developer unless you people have changed it. We have to know how much has been spent and how much need to be spent?”