‘FHA only built 37,000 houses in 40 years’

Pepple who also supervises Land,and Urban Development made this know on Monday in Abuja at the inaugural meeting of the steering committee on the restructuring and commercialisation of the FHA.“Since inception about 40 years ago, the FHA has been able to build only 37,000 housing across the  country.“This is an average of less than 1,000 […]

Pepple who also supervises Land,and Urban Development made this know on Monday in Abuja at the inaugural meeting of the steering committee on the restructuring and commercialisation of the FHA.
“Since inception about 40 years ago, the FHA has been able to build only 37,000 housing across the  country.
“This is an average of less than 1,000 houses per annum, currently, the housing deficit in Nigeria is estimated at 17 million units,” she said.
According to the minister this rather unimpressive performance can be attributed to the myriad of challenges faced by the agency.
Pepple listed some of the challenges were: historical operating losses, huge legacy debts, poor internally generated revenue base, and poor corporate governance.
She also said high cost of housing units (dependence on government funding) and lack of government cohesion were major challenges  faced by the FHA.
The minister said as part of efforts to re-position and strengthen the agency for effective service delivery, the Federal Government constituted a committee in May 2021 to examine its current structure operations and challenges.
“The committee submitted Its report in August making far reaching recommendations for the structural overhaul and commercialization of the FHA,
“The recommendation of the committee were approved by Mr President in December 2012 and a technical board was inaugurated to oversee the affairs of the authority during the restructuring period,” she said.
She noted that the steering committee inaugurated would work with the technical board and the interim management  team to ensure the full commercialization of the FHA in accordance with the Public enterprises Act 1999.
“Members of the committee and its terms of reference were approved by the National Council on Privatization chaired by Vice President Nnamadi Sambo recently,” she noted.
She said commercialization of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA)  was aimed at boosting the housing sector.
Pepple  further explained  that the decision taken by the National Council on Privatization (NCP) would still  address the huge housing deficit in the country.
She said that the process would curb inability to effectively function without government funding and borrowing from other institutions as a means of survival.
The minister said it would address poor financial management and corporate reporting practice, poor Information Technology, infrastructure, corporate affairs frame-work and political inter-ference and meddling.
Over 14 professionals were drawn from different fields  as members of the committee, with the minister as the chairperson. Other members include Mr. Ayeni Olatunde, Chairman Skye Bank plc, Mr. Chinelo Amagu, Ag. DG PenCOM, Mr. Benjamin Dikko,DG Bureau of Public Enterprise and Oyinloye Adekunle CEO, Infrastructure Bank plc. Also as members are, Mr Olabode Afolayan, National President, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria REDAN and representative of the ministry of Justice, NACCIMA and labour officials.