The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, has blamed the 17 million housing deficit in Nigeria on policy somersaults by successive administrations.
Mustapha stated this while receiving delegates from the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), according to a statement signed by Andrew Uhwe, Director Press, OSGF, on Wednesday, May 23, 2018 in Abuja.
He urged the FHA members to come up with a comprehensive social housing roadmap to tackle the huge housing deficit in the country and entrench policy sustainability in the sector.
“The provision of affordable and low-cost houses to citizens is a primary responsibility of the government because it is a social investment that should ease housing challenges.
“But over the years this objective had not been realised because of policy somersaults by the successive administrations.
“Since government is a continuum all developmental policies of the agency should be sustained and not discarded,’’ Mustapha said.
The SGF reiterated the determination of the present administration to tackle the huge housing deficit, by ensuring that a million houses were built across the country every year.
He applauded the productive efforts of Nigerians in Diaspora through their remittances to the economy.
He added that these remittances could be invested in beautiful estates for those in diaspora to halt the problem of fraud and abuse of trust by their friends and relatives.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Board, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, said the visit was to brief the SGF on activities and challenges of the agency and to seek for support and intervention in key areas of concern.
He stressed that in the 45 years history of the FHA government had made huge investment of over a trillion naira in housing projects.
He lamented the challenge of poor budgetary funding and requested that states assist the agency with suitable lands where they could build and sell.
He solicited for the amelioration of their estates ravaged by ecological problems requesting that the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government coordinates the diaspora city project.
By Kate Obande-Okewu
