By Segun Olatunji, Kaduna

Thursday, 25 Nov 2010

The Federal Housing Authority has so far provided over 37,000 housing units to low and medium-income earners across the country, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, FHA, Mr. Terver Gemade, has said.

Gemade, however, argued that efforts made in the past to provide affordable houses to Nigerians failed because of improper planning and lack of commitment by the initiators of the projects.

Speaking with journalists shortly after inspecting the construction of two-and-three-bedroom housing units at the Federal Housing Estate in the Gonin-Gora area of Kaduna, the FHA boss said that the housing policy of the organisation was targeted at low and medium-income earners.

He noted that the majority of Nigerians, who required houses were in the low and medium-income cadre, adding that about 70 per cent of the over 37,000 houses provided were for people in that category.

Gemade also said that the housing programme of the Shehu Shagari administration failed because it was bedeviled by many problems engendered by faulty planning.

He said, “The Shagari administration’s housing programme had a lot of problems because the planning itself was faulty and it was politicised as well. Shortly after the administration, the programme crashed.

“But you see, when you plan a programme effectively, even when you are no more there, the people who take over from you will not have any need to change it because the planning is good. So, what we have is a well-planned programme, which will not derail. Even when we are no longer there, it will still live after us.”

He explained that all the abandoned houses under the Shagari housing programme were not under the control of the FHA, adding that if the houses were handed over to the organisation, they would be completed within a short period and allocated to Nigerians.

 

Source: Punch