In a bid to strengthen the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) for effective service delivery, the Federal Government, last week, inaugurated the governing boards of the two institutions saddled with the responsibility of facilitating housing provision.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony in Abuja last week, Minister of Power, Works andHousing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, while stating that the inauguration was in line as required by their enabling statutes and as approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, said it had profound consequences on housing provision.
According to Fashola, one of such consequences is that it offers opportunity to the board members to participate in the decision-making process that has direct impacts on the lives of millions of people, who will partake and benefit from the prosperity that a housing economy offers.
“It is an opportunity whose importance is not to be viewed lightly. This is the opportunity to participate by rendering service, and it is the hallmark of liberal democracy.
“Every so often, many of us complain that things are not heading in the direction we like, but how many of us volunteer our time, our skills and our resources to affecting the course of events?
“More importantly, how many of us accept to serve with titles that are not headline grabbing like President, Governor, Senator, and Local Government Chairman; and how many will accept to serve without a title?” he charged.
Highlighting what their roles will be, Fashola urged them to quickly avail themselves a copy of the respective laws setting up their agencies, where their functions and powers are spelt out, noting that they will individually and collectively be the conscience of these agencies for implementing the policies of government, with respect to publichousing and mortgage financing in Nigeria.
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“For the avoidance of doubt, let me state that the policy of government is to deliver affordable housing, acceptable to Nigerians and these agencies, whose brands you will now administer are the implementing arms of government for housing delivery (FHA) and housing financing (FMBN).
“The Managing Directors and their management teams have the executive responsibility for carrying these out, subject to your board oversight, approvals and advice, while the ministry plays a supervisory role.
“Therefore, we expect to see harmony, respect, teamwork and a healthy working co-operation between board and management,” Fashola stated, reminding them of the ongoing pilot housing programme under construction in States of Nigeria.
Stating that pilot scheme was done to validate and test what type of housing design responds to Nigeria’s diverse cultural, climatic and religious needs, so as to ascertain what is acceptable and affordable.
“We are at different stages of construction in different states, and we have commended these designs to FHA, without imposing them.
“Our decision is informed by the evidence of previous housing initiatives that people did not take up and empty houses that still abound in almost every state of Nigeria”, he said, adding that these uninhabited houses, and the deficit of housing, suggested that the some housing designs are either unacceptable or unaffordable or both to Nigerians.
In essence, he made them to realise that housing is a product, and there is need to take the view that before they can be delivered to market, one must know what the people want and what they can afford.
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