Maduka Nweke
Chinese investors may be investing a whopping $300million in mass housing schemes for low and middle income earners across the country.
Mr Steven Kim, Director of the One Belt One Road Financing Operation in China, made the disclosure recently in Abuja at the operational briefing of the ZVECAN Homes and Estate of the ZVECAN Consulting and Engineering Limited. He said that the gesture was part of measures to bridge the rising accommodation and shelter gaps in the country.
Speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director, Zvecan Homes and Estate, Mr Nicholas Ogbedo, said that over 5,000 civil servants, who are the initial off-takers completing their documentaries with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board
(FGSHLB), would be the first beneficiaries of the homes to be built on request in one bed-room, two bedrooms and other bungalows in the approved locations in the FCT.
According to him the briefing was to update the developer’s inputs for the off-takers in the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) initiated by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF) Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, as part of measures by the Federal Government to provide affordable housing for the Federal Civil Servants before they retire from service.
Kim, who spoke through an interpreter, Mr Sylvester Osagie Aigbe, said most of the $300 million would be spent on local raw materials and technical manpower, while some importations including some raw materials, not readily available in Nigeria, would be imported from China.
“The Chinese Government is reviewing some of its policies in some countries receiving aids and grants, some of the reviews involve direct investment in housing and other critical infrastructural needs. Like we are going to do in Nigeria, partnering indigenous organisations, we have been involved in similar mass housing schemes in Kenya and Angola, where we are building over 3000 units of different specifications of affordable housing,” Kim said.
Speaking earlier, the Managing Director, Zvecan Homes and Estate, Mr Nicholas Ogbedo, said his organisation was working with FISH and other government stakeholders to realise its mandate. He added that his organisation was involved in the Kenyan and Angola schemes, hence his efforts to get the investors to Nigeria for the benefits of the low and medium level civil servants.
