The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has reiterated the
commitment of the Federal Government to the National Housing Scheme to
address the country’s housing deficit.
Fashola said this in Abuja on Tuesday during the unveiling of prefabricated
assembly and installation building facility in Kubwa.
Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a
factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting completed components
to the construction site.
He said that this commitment informed the use of cooperatives in housing
because it had been used to achieve a lot in the market place, agriculture and
transportation sectors.
Fashola said that cooperative associations are found in the local, state and
federal levels.
He said that the scheme was to integrate Nigerians operating in the informal
sector of the economy into the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme.
“The scheme enables a cooperative society that has acquired a plot of land
with building approval to develop houses for allocation to its members,’’
Fashola said.
According to him, housing and consumers credit is the major agenda of the
administration for its next levels.
He said that the country needed the new innovation to address its housing
deficit.
“Nigeria cannot continue to build houses using same style, because lots of
things have changed, so we need to adopt new innovations,’’ Fashola said.
He said that the government has set up a team to go round to audit and know
how many houses that are not occupied in the country.
Fashola said that the result of the findings would determine the kind of houses
Nigerians preferred as such would enable the government to properly address
housing deficits.
He said that the estimated housing deficit of more than 17 million units for the
country had no source.
“I have tried to find out the source of the figure but did not, what the figure
shows is that half of Nigerian population are homeless which is not true,’’
Fashola said.
He advised the Managing Director the company, Mr Hakeem Shagaya, to roll
out prefabricated assembly project by educating Nigerians on the importance
of using such material for building.
Fashola said that government would support the company to expand the
project.
Shagaya said that the company’s objective was to solve the housing deficit in
the country by providing an alternative solution.
He said that project involved making prefabricated housing a viable
alternative to the brick houses which Nigerians are used to.
“We provide services in fabricated homes, fabricated log homes, modular
building and all kinds of building construction services,’’ Shagaya said.
