New Telegraph

FHF woos cooperatives for 300,000 low-cost houses

As part of efforts to ensure full implementation of Federal Government’s 300,000 affordable social housing programme across Nigeria, the Family Homes Funds (FHF) is already wooing housing cooperatives in Nigeria for the deal. According to the Managing Director of Family Homes Funds, Mr. Femi Adewole, partnership with hundreds of housing cooperatives in Nigeria is very imperative in addressing the off -take or demand side of the housing market. Adewole said there was no better way to achieve access to the 300,000 low cost housing mandate than to work and strike a partnership with the cooperative federation of Nigeria. Such partnership, he said, would help to facilitate access to over 100,000 cooperatives in Nigeria, adding that FHF would work through them to mobilize demand to feed the programme.

“It is one thing to build 300,000 homes, it is another thing to actually find people who will buy those homes. I think the cooperatives provide us with a very strong and sustainable platform for mobilizing demand for those houses,’’ he said. Adewole’s parley is coming barely one week of CBN’s announcement of N200 billion initial funding for the social housing programme.

To achieve the intended results, Adewole urged that the cooperatives must work together with FHF and do more than before. He explained that the fund (N200 billion) would come to FHF through the Ministry of Finance to be loaned out at a concessionary price to cooperatives to provide houses for their cooperators once they meet the criteria for the loans.

“You’re then to build with prequalified people that has been vetted by FHF as SME delivery partners, especially young people. This is to spread the opportunity to as many people as possible. The delivery partners must be localised,” he said.

The financing, according to him, will be single digit of eight to nine per cent per annum, adding that cooperatives would be getting a land subsidy provided by public sources like state governments to build the houses.

“When the houses are completed, individual members of cooperatives will buy the houses through a CBN facility, directly or through your cooperative mortgage banks that allow you to pay gradually for the houses,” the FHF boss said. He described cooperatives as “significant partners” in delivering the social housing programme, saying they could help to deliver the real needs. He said: “We need to build and delivered in bulk.

That is why we are working with cooperatives. Working with cooperatives help reduce the risk because we can get early commitments from them. “We have developed standard house types, affordable but super efficient. On the prices, the one bedroom will range between N1, 800,000 to N2,000,000; the two bedroom will be for N2,700,500, while the three bedroom will be N3,500,000.”

He called for full maximisation of the opportunity. Speaking further in Abuja, Adewole said that the essence of the forum was to finalise on the acceptable criteria for engagement, and for the provision of affordable houses for those who need them most. According to him, FHF already has ideas about the criteria for selecting coorperative partners that will deliver a balanced housing program, adding that some of them included strong corporate governance, national spread and social inclusiveness.

He said: “We want cooperatives that are well organised and well run. We want a very even spread across nation. We want cooperatives that are socially inclusive and not discriminatory against gender, tribe, religion or age.” He added that issue of affordability for the rightful beneficiaries (low income earners) was non-negotiable. ‘’The social housing pro-gramme is about providing homes for people on low income.

That is the vision of this administration. So we will be working with cooperatives who are committed and passionate about providing homes for millions of Nigerians on low income,’’ he said. The social housing programme, Adewole said, was one of the key elements of the Economic Sustainability Plan of the Federal Government of Nigeria, as one of the key measures to alleviate the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic which has rendered many low income earners jobless and homeless. According to him, the key objective of the social housing programme is to create jobs at scale, especially for low income earners whom may have lost their jobs because of the scourge.

The second objective is to revitalise the local economy by using local content for housing development. In realising that, he said that 1,500,000 million doors, 1,800,000 windows, 7,800,000 door hinges and other building materials would be manufactured locally for the social housing program, giving a new lease of life to local industries.

The third objective is to create affordable and sustainable homes for the low income earners. “We want to all be on the same page in designing the program. We want to dialogue with cooperatives to agree on ways we can achieve these goals,” he said.

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