Willie Obiano Signs Agreement With Irish Firm For Affordable Housing Units

The Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an Irish firm, Asieur International Limited Group, for the development of 10,000 Affordable Housing Units in the state for civil servants and other low-income earners.

At the ceremony held at the Government House in Awka and attended by all the executive council members, the Governor gave his commitment to ensuring that the housing units, which would cost about 95.2 billion Naira (about $476.1 million), would come to fruition to ease the housing constraints of the citizens of the state.

He stressed that a major fundamental step towards advancing development in every state was giving low-income earners a secure place to live.

Housing challenge has always been a grave one for low income earners and most times, when they do not own lands to construct even a little apartment, it becomes more challenging.

Housing For All

In Anambra State, especially in the capital city of Awka, where the majority of the population are civil servants, accommodation is a very big challenge, as many do not have substantial amount with which to rent a house.

To increase access to housing, the state government decided to embark on a ‘Housing For All’ project.

Giving a breakdown of the cost of the housing units, the Chairman of the Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency, Mr Cyril Enwezor, said part of the agreement was that the state’s equity contribution would be 18 billion Naira (about $90 million).

The state has already earmarked about 200 hectares of land in certain areas of 40 hectares per area in five different locations and the project would commence within six months or the understanding would be revoked.

The project will be developed in five trenches of 2,000 units each, Mr Enwezor said.

The project Director, Mr Tony Duncan, aside from pledging to construct affordable houses according to acceptable global standards, assured the Governor that the firm would establish a prolonged relationship with the state, as he would be staying in the country for the next four years to ensure all projects were completed.

For the state Governor, the proposed 10,000 housing units in addition to other housing projects in the state would go a long way in ameliorating the accommodation constraints of the citizens especially, civil servants.

He gave an assurance of a total commitment to realising the project.

The state government had earlier signed two Memorandum of Understanding with two firms for the construction of 10,000 housing units respectively.