The Niger State government has laid the foundation for the construction of 279 units housing scheme in Suleja town, near Abuja, as part of its efforts to provide affordable houses to citizens in the state.
Performing the brief ceremony last weekend, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello explained that the housing scheme was in partnership with Bamhill Properties, initiated to solve the housing deficit in the state.
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He said, “This housing scheme is very important to us as a government. It is a build-up to the partnership between the private sector and government in our plan to provide affordable housing for our indigenes and people around here in Suleja. “This project has been on the drawing board for some time now, but I am glad that it has been actualized.”
“The infrastructure of Suleja has been overwhelmed because of the number of people living in it. We have engaged a consultant to look at the agreement before the setting up of Abuja as FCT.
“I believed that some of the promises made then by the federal government have been fulfilled but again there are more that have not been fulfilled. So we are following up on these,” he said.
He urged developers to make the cost of the houses affordable to indigenes with the offer of first right refusal.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), Federal Housing Authority Mortgage Bank, Mr Hayatudeen Awwal, said N25 billion has been made available for the scheme which, he added, has already been oversubscribed.
Awwal said the project will provide 2000 jobs for people in the next two years, adding that all raw materials for the project would be sourced locally.
Speaking earlier, the Managing Director (MD) Bamhill Properties, Akinkugbe Akeredolu-Ale, said the 279 houses units consisted of 227 2-bedroom terraced and 52 units of 3-bedroom blocks of flats to be delivered in two phases.
