‘Why FCDA’s mass housing policy is private sector driven’

Engr. Emma A. Oluwadamisi, Director Mass Housing of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), in this interview said the housing policy of the FCT Administration is private sector driven and meant to fix housing deficit.

Tell us about the focus of your mass housing policy. Is it in terms of size, repeated schemes or wider coverage?

The mass housing programme of the FCT Administration is primarily focused on meeting the housing deficit in the FCT. The administration observed that there is huge housing deficit and in order to fix the deficit, the mass housing programme was commenced. The intention is that the private sector will set in to finance the housing development and recoup their investment by selling those houses to the Nigerian populace.

How has this partnership with private developers helped to meet the housing needs of the people?

It has helped tremendously in bridging the gap. There are challenges but the gap has been bridged. If you go to all the mass housing estates during peak hours, you will see the huge number of Nigerians going in or coming out of such estates, meaning that if those houses were not provided, those people would have serious challenge of accommodation. So it has helped.

Could you name some of those that you are proud of; those that are part of your achievements?

There are quite a number of them that actually make us proud in the mass housing programme like the AMSCON Housing Development in Galadimawa that is very well constructed. A lot of Nigerians are living there, top government officials. The houses are very good and the infrastructures are also good. The same thing with Katsina Housing Estate in Kafe, they are very good. They engaged a Chinese construction company for their infrastructure. We have a couple of bad ones but most of them are good.

In all of these, do you give consideration to low cost housing for low income earners?

Yes we do. If you see all the mass housing estates that have been developed, we always tell them to make consideration for all Nigerians. We have 4, 3 and 2 bedroom flats and even one bedroom flat. Abuja Properties Development Company (APDC) is doing a good model estate along Kubwa road. It is a mass housing development where all categories of people can find a house because their capacities are all being taken care of.

Do you have data on the number of staff here whose housing needs you have taken care of, as they say, ‘charity begins at home’?

The mass housing programme is a private sector initiative and what we do in it is to get private hands to develop the houses and then the houses are free for every Nigerian regardless of where they work. What we do is, anybody that needs a house, we direct them to the genuine developers and a lot of our staff are staying in many of such houses.

You play a regulatory role in this partnership and you have set benchmarks and checklists for developers to adhere to. What challenges would you say you’re having with some of them in keeping to set standards and, in case of default, is there punishment?

Yes, we have challenges as some of them default, where the approvals they are given are different from what they build on the sites. This responsibility of checking these developments is domiciled with the Department of Development Control but when we go for our oversight functions and see such things we immediately communicate to them and inform them about violation of approved plan so they have to quickly move in and act even if it means demolishing some of them.

There are a couple of estates that have been abandoned, what are you doing to ensure that this trend doesn’t continue?

Some estates have been abandoned for so many reasons. Some of them were abandoned because the developer experienced financial setbacks and could not continue. We invite developers with such cases and tell them that we do not want such places to become dens for hoodlums. So we have been challenging and at the same time encouraging them to do something about it.

Sometimes we succeed while other times we do not. We try to identify few sources of income for them to go and source loan to develop such estates. Some of them are eager to develop the houses but not keen to develop the infrastructure because of the cost involved.

We are making a lot of efforts to also challenge them in that direction and where they are not forthcoming we sometimes engage the residents association to come together and form a pressure group to help us actualise this quality infrastructure.

Housing is a basic human need and nationally we have a housing deficit of about 22 million houses. What is the gap in the FCT, are you trying to review your policy to bridge the gap?

It is true that there is a national housing deficit and it’s the deficit that led to the mass housing programme. The mass housing programme is an offshoot of accelerated housing development. The accelerated housing development was the initial concept to quickly reduce the housing deficit. Through the programme we have been able to complete several houses that people can use. The people that were given those houses were also given a timeline to go and develop, them within two years, because we want houses in the FCT to increase.

When there is shortage, we revoke the land and give it to more competent developers. By and large, the housing deficit in Abuja is not as significant as other parts of the country.

The major challenge has been that though the houses are available, they are not affordable…

We are working very closely with the developers to ensure that they make the houses as cheap as possible.