President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday launched the ground breaking Nigeria’s first civil servants housing estate in Apo Extension, Abuja under the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme with a promise to build 5,000 cost-effective and affordable housing in all the states of the federation by 2019.
The President, who was represented at the occasion by the Minister of State for Power, Work and Housing, Mustapha Baba Shehuri, said the current government was planning to reenact more of similar models across the nation to ease the accommodation burden being faced by middle and low earning workers.
Aliko Dangote, who chaired the launching, said his company would widen the scope of FISH to enable workers have their own houses by the time they live service.
The FISH Programme was designed to provide affordable housing for public servants through an integrated strategy involving group land acquisition, infrastructure development, inter-ministerial collaboration, site services and support from mortgage finance bank.
The project will be cited on a parcel of land in Chafuyi Village measuring 60 hectares and will be developed through private partnership led by ABSI Building Systems International.
The Permanent Secretary, Common Services, who is the Chairman of the project Mr. S.K.Y Adelakun, said the price limit prices for the low cost houses are N5 million, N9 million and N12 million for one bedroom, two bedrooms and three bed rooms respectively.
“All federal civil servants are eligible to apply for allocation to these houses depending on their ability to pay the equity contributions required for mortgage approval and the monthly repayment their salaries can accommodate. It is also a requirement to be a registered member of FISH Corporative Society to be eligible,” Adelakun said.
