Invest more on housing for job creation, Fashola tells FHA

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, has charged the Board of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to invest massively in housing development nationwide as a means to further addressing the challenge of unemployment in the country.

Fashola, who spoke after receiving the annual report of the board of the FHA in his office recently, urged the authority to replicate, nationwide, its ongoing 700 units, 10,000 employees Abuja Mass Housing project in Zuba, saying such an investment, if replicated in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, would create an ecosystem of opportunities for jobs and industrialisation.

Noting that through the project FHA has identified appropriately the critical role that housing development could play in responding to and solving some of the problems and challenges currently faced in the country, the minister said, “If you go to a site where over 700 housing units are being built and 10,000 people are benefiting and getting employment there, you are really then beginning to attack the social issues of exclusion, unemployment, joblessness and restoring the dignity of the human being.”

“If we can have 10,000 people employed in each of the 36 states and the FCT, clearly we will be pushing the needle in a significant way. With SMEs making paints, wires, roofing sheets and all of the building materials, we will really be creating opportunities for labourers who use them, transporters, food vendors and others; it is a huge ecosystem of activities”, he said.

Pledging that his ministry would continue to compliment the efforts of the FHA and what the Federal Mortgage Bank is doing to open up opportunities to allow for mortgage lending, the minister commended the Lawal Shuaibu-led Board of the FHA for coming up with a report of its activities within one year of its inauguration.

“I cannot recall ever reading that a board of the FHA in the recent past ever submitted an annual report after one year. I am highly delighted that within a year of the inauguration of this board, the Lawal Shuaibu-led Board of the FHA is able to look back while it projects forward to say let us go and report to those who appointed us. It is a strong vote, a strong validation of the Muhammadu Buhari administration stance on accountability; what gets measured and reported gets done,” he said.

In his remarks before submitting the Annual Report, which covers March 2018 to March 2019 to the minister, the board chairman, Senator Shuaibu said the report was aimed at highlighting efforts the board has made in its first year towards injecting new ideas and designing strategies for improving governance and service delivery in the agency.