Niger partners private sector on 279 Suleja housing estate

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state has laid the foundation for the construction of 279 units housing scheme in Suleja town as part of government’s efforts to provide affordable housing accommodation to citizens in the state.

Performing the brief ceremony on Tuesday, the governor explained that the housing scheme is in partnership with Bamhill Properties, initiated to solve the housing deficit in the state.

He said, “This housing scheme is very important to us as a government. It is a build-up to the partnership between the private sector and government in our plan to provide affordable housing for our indigenes and people around here in Suleja. This project has been on the drawing board for some time now, but I am glad that it has been actualised”.

Governor Sani Bello said that the administration is looking at the Suleja Master Plan with a view to upgrading and transforming it into a modern urban city with smart homes considering its proximity to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

According to him, “We are determined to solve accommodation deficit problems in our urban cities especially a place like Suleja where you have lots of people working in Abuja coming to stay. There is, therefore, the need to look at the master plan of Suleja urban area and provide better smart houses”.

According to him, “The infrastructure of Suleja has been overwhelmed because of the number of people living in it. We have a consultant engaged to look at the agreement prior to setting up Abuja as FCT. I believed that some of the promises made then by the federal government have been fulfilled but again there are more that have not been fulfilled. So we are following up on these”.

In his remarks, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Housing Authority Mortgage Bank, Mr. Hayatudeen Awwal said N25 billion has been made available for the scheme, which he said has already been oversubscribed.

Awwal said the project will provide 2000 jobs for people in the next two years adding that all raw materials for the project will be sourced locally.

Speaking earlier, the Managing Director (MD) Bamhill Properties Akinkugbe Akeredolu-Ale said the objective of the scheme is to provide houses for the low and medium-income earners in the state, adding that the 279 houses units consist of 227 2-bedroom terrace and 52 units of 3-bedroom block of flats to be delivered in two phases.

Credit: Blueprint