The Government of Abia State has promised to consider citizens in the diaspora in its plan to make housing available to the people. The governor of the State, Mr. Alex Otti, disclosed this when a team of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) paid him a courtesy visit recently.
The move feeds into the federal government’s pledge to make affordable housing available to Nigerians through the scheme provided by the FHA.
Otti thanked the federal government for the decision to ensure that Nigerians have shelter. He said that plans are underway to commence a scheme aimed at providing affordable housing for the people of Abia, especially those in the diaspora. He also stated that the government has already gotten the location for a housing project tagged ‘Diaspora Village’. “Our agenda for evolving the ‘Diaspora Village’ project and provision of affordable housing aligns perfectly with the agency’s vision,” Otti said. He commended the agency for its efforts to ensure active involvement of the government and people of Abia in the scheme.
Otti further commended the agency for opting to use local contractors for the execution of the project, because in the past it was used for political settlements. “We are very much open to partnering with the federal government on increasing affordable housing for the citizens,” he said.
Speaking on the housing provision, the Managing Director of the FHA, Mr. Oyetunde Ojo, expressed the resolve of the agency to provide affordable housing for Nigerians. He described shelter as “extremely important key” in the lives of the people. He noted that whatever thing one does, after the day’s work everyone must retire to a place for the night.
He stated that provision of affordable housing remains the key mandate of the agency and that research has shown a serious deficiency in the availability of affordable housing for the citizens. He said the federal government is making efforts to address it. He added that the renewed hope agenda of the federal government provided for the operation of a housing initiative, stating that the initiative would be used to address the affordable housing deficiency in the country.
The FHA boss observed that executing housing schemes without participatory involvement of the people would not adequately solve the problem and that it is essential to build houses that would specifically meet the peculiar and cultural needs of the people.
He promised that under his watch, state governments would be actively involved in the execution of federal housing schemes in their states. “We don’t just want to take land from you, rather we want to sit down with you and redesign together on the kind of housing that will be in line with the needs and preferences of the people of Abia,” he said.
“I will make provision of infrastructure and affordable housing effective strategies for enhancing deflation. Housing sector holds a lot of potentials in creating jobs and the President had deemed it fit to pump in money into this sector to tackle inflation. Housing projects would be handled by local contractors in the state to ensure that the projects did not fail,” Ojo said.
Abia Govt To Set Up Diaspora Village
