FCTA reiterates readiness to tackle housing deficit in Abuja

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has reiterated willingness to partner with any estate developer of capacity and competence to deliver on affordable housing, aimed at bridging the housing deficit in the Territory.
Making this assertion, FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, who expressed the FCTA’s willingness during a meeting with the management of Tayan Group, an Estate Developer in Abuja, also reiterated the commitment of the Administration to complete all abandoned and ongoing projects.
Aliyu opined that such partnership would fast track the execution of the presidential mandate to deliver 5000 affordable housing units to residents of the Territory.
She however, warned that all development in the nation’s capital must comply with all engineering rules and regulations of construction within the Federal Capital Territory, just as she
According to her, the Administration would only partner with companies with financial muscle to execute a project within 18 months period, in order to avoid the mistakes of the past of littering the city with abandoned projects.
“I have seen your beautiful projects, but hoping that the property has valid documents and certified by the Federal Capital Territory Administration. All property in the Territory must comply with all engineering rules and regulations of construction within the Federal Capital Territory.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform you that under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, and under the 13 presidential deliverables given to the Federal Capital Territory Administration, affordable housing is given priority.
“And in this affordable housing project, we intend to carry along competent companies of repute whose integrity have been proven by the various jobs they have executed within the nation.
“Also one of the areas we are looking at is the financial muscles to execute a project going by the paucity of funds in the country, and any project awarded must be executed within a certain period of time.
“As student of history, when a project is being initiated by any administration and it is not completed, then it becomes an abandoned project. But under the leadership of our indefatigable president Muhammadu Buhari, he has insisted that we must complete all abandoned and ongoing projects.
“Besides that, the only new projects we can execute now are projects that will have meaningful impact on the citizenry; mainly the road construction, housing to give shelter, water, healthcare and transportation. So, housing of course is Mr. President priority”, she stressed.
The minister also noted that one of the cries and challenges of people who work in the FCT was a place of abode, noting that in order to ease that burden and to reduce the difficulties, the President has ordered the provisions of affordable housing.
Earlier in his presentation, the Managing Director of Tayan Group, Mr. Tola Ayanlola, used the occasion to unveil the company’s “Project 10,000 Smiles Home for All” located in Kuje, which he revealed was planned to accommodate all classes of people in line with the vision of the company.
Ayanlola, also revealed that the shortage within the housing industry has prompted higher affordability certainties, stressing that the involvement of Tayan Group was to provide a bridge in the gap and provide benefiting and affordable accommodations that would be made available to all.