Why Government appropriated N100b for Housing Sector – Minister

·     As Lagos injects $500m to combat housing challenges

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma  Udo  Udoma, has restated the place of housing and urban development as key elements of the nation’s national planning.

This, he said, necessitated the appropriation of N100bn for the social housing fund in the 2017 budget which will, in turn, deliver affordable housing to Nigerians through the integrated national housing plan in the coming years.

Udoma made this declaration when he received the Housing and Urban Development working team of the National Economic Summit Group (NESG) led by Architect Pemwalk GomwalK.

Udoma acknowledged that funding has been the major challenge in realizing the goal of meeting the country’s housing deficit, and challenged the NESG to mobilize the private sector to complement government efforts in investing in the housing sector, maintaining that housing is a good sector to invest in.

Gomwalk told the minister that the group has put together its input which will be presented to the minister in the coming days for inclusion into the national integrated housing plan of the federal government.

In a related development, Lagos State is set to invest $500 million in redesigning and completing housing units at Ilubirin and Ijora-Badia, according to the Commissioner for Housing, Mr Gbolahan Lawal, who made the disclosure in an interview in Lagos.

Lawal said the investment would be in collaboration with private partners, and that the venture would create 10,000 direct jobs.

“There is a need to redesign and expand the mass housing units at Ilubirin and Ijora-Badia to allow for efficient utilization of resources and for better quality delivery.

“We have signed a Public-Private Partnership agreement with First Investment Development Company in this regard.

“The project will be in phases and is expected to be fully completed within the next five years,” Lawal said.