Buhari Urges APC States To Build 250,000 Housing Units Yearly

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday tasked the 22 states governed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to build 250,000 housing units per annum.

This, he said, is to meet up with the election campaign promise of providing one million houses for Nigerians yearly.

He spoke at the opening session of the two-day National Economic Council (NEC) Retreat on the economy at the old Banquet Hall, Abuja.

He also charged foreign investors and local construction companies to take part in the new effort to cover Nigeria’s housing deficit.

He said: “Some estimates put Nigeria’s housing deficit at about sixteen million units. In our successful campaign to win the general elections last year our party, the APC, promised to build a million housing units a year. This will turn out to be a very tall order unless:

“The Federal Government builds two hundred and fifty thousand units. The 22 APC States together manage another two hundred and fifty thousand units.

“We invite foreign investors together with local domiciled big construction companies to enter into commercial housing building to pick up the rest,” he added

Buhari listed the challenges in the housing sector to include severe shortage of housing, high rents, unaffordable prices for prospective buyers especially middle and low-income earners.

“In addition, red tape, corruption and plain public service inefficiency lead to long delays in obtaining ownership of title documents.

“Again, there are no long term funding sources for mortgage purposes.

“These hurdles are by no means easy to scale, but we must find solutions to the housing deficit. This Retreat might start by looking at the laws.” He added