Except government monitors and control the cost of houses being built by private developers, efforts aimed at reducing the housing deficit put at between 12 and 15 million units would continue to be a mirage.

This observation is coming as over 300 cheap housing units are set to be delivered in Abuja in due course.
Renowned estate developer and operator of the Public-Private Partnership in some states in the north, Prince Olu Faboro, whose firm is promoting the project, said this in Abuja on the new housing project being planned for the Federal Capital by FHT Ventures Plc through the PPP.

He said that why there would continue to be housing deficit, and the existing houses beyond the reach of the middle level income earners was because the existing housing policy did not give room for low interest yielding loans which the private developers could access for cheap houses.
As a result of this, government took it upon itself to be investing in housing projects which in the end, fall into the hands of the rich who in the first instance are bouyant enough to acquire the ones sold by developers at cut throat prices.

Faboro mainatined that the partnership of his firm with governments of Niger, Nasarawa and the Federal Government would produce good but cheap houses to the admiration of Nigerians and prove that a PPP on housing project if properly implemented, could solve the housing problems in Nigeria.
Said he: “By the grace of God, PPP shall be delivering cheap 300 housing units soon in Abuja. This is with all mordern facilities and will be in duplexes, bungalows and semi detached ones. We are also developing others in Kafe, close to Life camp on a 23 hectres of land, where we are projecting to deliver between 400 and 600 units. Also in Strabag area we are providing 122 units of houses, terrace buildings for expartriates and corporate tenants.

“The houses shall be up for grab through mortgages spreading between 20 and 30 years so that every working people would have access while there will also be some others for outright sales.”
According to him, the challenges of achieving affordable housing delivery are quite enormous, and to summont the challenges it would entail amending the existing laws and anacting now ones.
He reiterated his call on government that the nation's mounting external reserves be invested on mass housing and agricultural projects to lessen the development burden of the masses. He argued that it was enough for the foreign banks to be trading with the reserves at no interest to the country was not advantageous to Nigeria .

Faboro said the bankers holding the reserves in trust for Nigeria should be instructed to invest some 70 per cent of the reserves in Nigeria on estate and other vital sector like agriculture, saying that the country is in dire need of affordable mass housing to tackle the housing deficit which has rendered millions of Nigerians homeless.

“I am making this call as a concerned Nigerian, because the banks holding the reserves are trading with it to their own advantage, but government can now mandate them to come here in Nigeria and invest the money in the real estate sector so that ordinary Nigerians could reap the maximum benefit of the reserves.

“The ministries of housing and that of agric should be mandated to go into discussion with World Bank and other global financial institutions to save the nation of the mess posed by the housing deficit by plouging at least N3 billion dollars on the mass housing projects so that most Nigerians could have shelter since its one of the basic responsibilities of government.”