The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said President Muhammadu Buhari‘s policies and programme has met the needs of house owners at the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Zuba, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
According to him, even tough majority of home owners in the estate would not meet the president personally as he commissions the projects on Tuesday, they have met what his policies have done.
Fashola, as gathered by OsunDaily News, made this position known during the inauguration of the estate, which covers a total of 18.5 hectares of land and has 748 units of various house types in 75 blocks.
The minister noted that the completion of the project was as a result of teamwork and leadership by the President, who gave approval for appointments into the leadership of the FHA Board and Management.
Fashola pointed out that 75 contractors were engaged in the course of the project, and over 13,000 Nigerians were employed both directly and indirectly.
He stated that “Instead of abandoned projects, we now have 748 completed housing units for Nigerians and their families to shelter,
“Although many of the beneficiaries of this project will never meet the President personally, your policies and programmes have met them personally at the point of their needs.”
Fashola told the President that the five beneficiaries who received keys to their flats, including Tina Orkpe, Salisu Iliyasu, Ado Maude, Rabina Abdulkadir and Flight Sgt. Musa Mohammed subscribed through FHA Rent-to-Own delivery model.
In his remark at the event,the Managing Director and Chief Executive Office of FHA, Gbenga Ashafa, submitted that the commissioning of the project is a manifestation of the visionary and deliberate housing policy of the President, who in keeping with the promise of providing shelter to Nigerians, approved the grant to FHA.
Ashafa remarked that the Authority delivered the project at a total cost of N9.5 billion with the subvention of N7.5 billion from the Federal Government, while adding that the balance of 2 billion of construction cost came from the authority’s other projects which were ploughed into to complete the estate.
He also revealed that the authority has also started the development of Bwari Estate, Abuja near the Nigeria Law School, which will deliver 336 units of various houses under the first phase of the project.
Also speaking was the Chairman, Board of Directors, FHA, Shuaibu Lawal, who appreciated the President for providing the grant of N7.5 billion for the project to commence in May 2018.
“Without that grant, which served as the seed money, this project would not have been possible. Mr President, you take all the credit for what we are seeing here today,” he said.
