‘Family Homes Funds will build 500,000 houses, create 1.5m jobs’

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab S. Ahmed, has said the Family Homes Funds Ltd established by the federal government to build affordable houses will build at least 500,000 houses for low-income earners across the country. The minister also said while building the houses, the FHFL would create at least 1.5 million jobs. 

 The minister spoke at the inauguration of the Board of Family Homes Funds Ltd yesterday in Abuja. 

 She said the mass housing scheme is President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s goal of bridging the housing needs gap with the aim of promptly addressing the numerous demands for government interventions in the housing sector. The minister tasked the board members to lead with the highest level of integrity and corporate governance culture.

 “The Family Homes Fund will receive significant amounts of public money, in addition to other capital from development finance institutions and the capital market. It must, therefore, be a reliable steward of resource on your part.

 Secondly, we expect you to be creative, bold and ambitious” she said. The housing programme she said “envisaged under the Family Homes Scheme is the largest in the history of our nation and if successfully delivered, it has the potential, not to change lives but also to boost Nigeria’s economy. It will, therefore, serve as a catalyst to attract investors, provide land ownership to citizens at a lower rate and mobilise funds through mortgage finance”. 

She noted that the “poor delivery of affordable housing over the last thirty years is, in part, attributable to lack of co-operation among various agencies tasked with the provision of housing.” She thus encouraged the board to seek and build partnerships, and even collaboration.

Credit: Daily Trust