Fayemi flags off 1,000 units housing estate for Ekiti workers

Workers in Ekiti State are set to become proud owners of houses in the various housing estates being built by the state government under a public-private partnership arrangement as the state Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on Wednesday stated that arrangements have been concluded to return the state to the National Housing Fund scheme to enable workers have access to mortgage loans to purchase personal homes.
Fayemi, who made this known at the flag off of Eyiyato Housing Estate in Ado-Ekiti, stressed that housing finance has been a major hurdle to housing provision, hence mortgage financing becomes the most recognized strategy in the financing.
Fayemi, who restated his administration’s plan to provide 5,000 units of affordable houses to workers, said the Housing Fund Scheme, a programme of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, entails the deduction of 2.5 per cent of basic salary of workers for the scheme, which will take off in January 2014.
He said: “There is no doubt that the quantity of hosing stock presently available in Nigeria as a whole is a far cry from the requirement of our people.
“This has led to increased cost of shelter both in acquisition and rental and Ado Ekiti and Ekiti State is not immured from this scenario.”
While explaining that the Ekiti Homes Agenda was established in order to deliver faster on the 5,000 housing units target, the governor said the effort is yielding fruits with the establishment of 270 unit FRSC Housing Estate, 750 unit NUT Housing estates in Ikere, Aramoko and Otun and 500 unit Wemabod Estate along Iworoko Road.
He said the developers have concluded arrangements to mobilize to site.
Speaking on the Eyiyato Housing Estate, Fayemi stated that the estate will comprise 1,000 units of houses of various types on completion even as the estate is designed to have ICT security initiatives and other facilities that enhance comfort.
He added that the estate provides opportunity to showcase the untapped clay production in the state as a substantial number of the 1,000 housing units will be built with burnt clay bricks, apparently from the resuscitated Ire burnt brick factory.
Fayemi said: “To ensure a robust delivery of the programme, my administration is providing for the road infrastructure for the housing estates as part of its commitment to the PPP arrangement with the developers.
“In addition, we are fine tuning discussions with banks and mortgage institutions to provide mortgage facilities at very affordable rates so that all cadres of Ekiti residents can access these homes.”
Speaking at the event, the Group Managing Director of Fountain Holdings Limited, Muyiwa Ogunmilade, said the housing scheme is achievable since it is a project to be actualised through a public private partnership.
Ogunmilade said government would continue to give support to the developers in order to achieve the target.
He assured the people that the houses would be made available to them at affordable cost on completion.
In his remarks, the Programme Director of Ekiti Homes Agenda, Opeyemi Akeju, said the his organization was putting together structures for all cadres of the society and even has a scheme it is articulating for those who cannot demonstrate their income.