Provision of Affordable Housing in Lagos State

According to real estate news as reported in the Nigeria newspapers, the Lagos state government has pledged to make affordable housing possible for the people of the state.

The government intends to achieve this goal by significantly reducing the cost of housing construction through utilizing locally sourced raw materials and building a lot of houses.
In addition, the state government is about floating home ownership mortgage scheme to realize affordable home ownership dreams.

According to the Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje, the home ownership mortgage scheme being floated by the state government will soon commence, noting that the availability of a strong mortgage finance mechanism was essential to realizing the affordable home ownership dreams.

He said the scheme has been designed to provide long term mortgages for all categories of people in the state at an interest rate and exceeding six per cent and with fairly long paying back period.

He urged people of the state to form cooperative societies with the motive of saving to become home ownership, noting that they could raise the equity contribution for the houses to be bought from such societies while the balance would be extended over some years

Residents Advised Against Blocking Drains

The executive chairman of Lagos state, public works corporation (LSPWC), Mr. Gbenga Akintola advised Lagos residents to keep the drains free of garbage in order to minimize the incidence of flooding and extend the life span of roads in the state.

He also appeals for understanding from the people in regard to the maintenance of the road and that not much could be done during rainy season.

He said that the implication of people’s poor waste disposal and cleanliness attitude has continued to cost the state millions of naira due to flooding and road damage, while also creating serious threats to life.

He gave instances of the flood, whenever it rains and what usually blocks the drainage are thousands of pure water sachets, used clothes, shoes, stationeries and all sorts of domestic wastes.

Mr. Akintola said Lagos State Public Works Corporation was resolute to continuously provide measures to reduce the effects of the present bad condition of roads in the state.

He added that LSPWC intended to use pavestone, boulders of various sizes and lean concrete mix prepared with rapid hardening cement, which require lesser time to dry up to fix the roads and make them ready for use faster.

LAWMA caution on proper waste disposal method as a preventive measure against flood
Today, appeal was made to Lagos residents by the Lagos Waste Management Authority to properly store waste they generated to prevent it from blocking drainage channels and causing flood during rainy season.

According to LAWMA, residents should make sure that their wastes were well stored in nylon bags and waste containers for easy disposal by the private waste collectors.

This appeal was made during visits of different locations in the metropolis following recent heavy rainfall and the aftermath flooding.