Ogun seals $11m housing partnership with private sector

Ogun State government has received a loan offer of $11 million from a Kenya based Shelter Afrique Company, for the construction of over 500 units housing project, for residents at Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.

The Special Adviser to the governor on Housing Development and General Manager of the State Housing Corporation, Mrs Olajumoke Akinwunmi, disclosed this while playing host to members of the State House of Assembly on House Committee on Land and Housing during an oversight visit to the corporation.

Akinwunmi said the proposed housing project would occupy 26 hectares of land, affirming that the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement would assist government to deliver on its set objective on the provision of affordable housing under its five cardinal programmes apart from meeting up with its industrialisation development.

“The state government entered into the PPP arrangement to further promote affordable mass housing for the people and create new benchmark in quality and economy to meet up with the ongoing industrialisation development in the state,” she said.

She added that the proposed estate would be designed as flats, terraces, semi and full detached bungalows with self-built homes on service plots, stating that the corporation would send a request to the State House of Assembly for the loan approval.

The Chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Land and Housing, Honourable Adebiyi Adeleye, expressed satisfaction at the development, saying the corporation had turned around the fortune of the state with a request that the gesture be extended to other senatorial districts in the state.

Meanwhile, Akinwunmi has urged residents of the state to take advantage of mortgage facilities being offered by the government to own houses by themselves.

Akinwunmi who stressed this during an interactive session with newsmen in Abeokuta, pointed out that taking mortgage, was a viable option through which people can benefit maximally from the affordable housing scheme, provided by the state government.

She said government had created multiple-gated residential communities that the people could benefit from just as lands could be allocated to them for development considering that plans were ongoing to also make provision for artisans, individuals in the private sector, apart from public servants in this regard.

“Ogun State Housing Corporation as one of the government agencies charged with the provision of more affordable housing has developed multiple gated residential communities and aims to deliver several thousand over the next few years to meet the aspirations and affordability of the people,” she added.

Akinwunwi enjoined the people to afford themselves the opportunity provided by the National Housing Fund Scheme, through accredited mortgage institutions in the state, to harness housing loan facilities at reduced interest rates, maintaining that mortgage remained one of the viable options for home ownership in the developed and developing countries.