THE Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Thursday in Gombe, flagged off the North-East Housing Development Project.
He equally commissioned 150 housing units under the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria/Gombe State Investment and Property Development Company Housing Estate, Gombe.
The houses comprise 82 units of two-bedroom detached bungalows at N6.5m and 68 units of three-bedroom detached bungalows put at N7.3m.
Speaking at the commissioning of the estate located along Dukku Road, the minister disclosed that the Federal Government had chosen Gombe State as the anchor of the North-East Housing Development Project.
He added that Gombe was the first state that the Cooperative Housing Scheme of the Federal Government would be take off.
Fashola explained that through the Cooperative Scheme, people were encouraged to build houses of their choice for themselves.
“We want people to register formally with their state governments for cooperative and once you are registered, you apply for land and you decide on what you want to build. Housing is a way of distributing resources,” the minister said.
He advised that all paperwork must be perfected to prevent future demolition by any government that comes to power and might intend to remove illegal structures.
Fashola stressed that housing would continue to create employment, as well as grow the economy.
He charged Governor Muhammadu Yahaya to be an ambassador of Cooperative Housing Development Project in the North-East.
On his part, Yahaya promised the minister that Gombe State would not disappoint the Federal Government, which deemed it fit to choose the state as the pilot of the project in the North-East.
He said that his administration would justify the confidence reposed in it by the people of the state by continuing to do more in providing them shelter.
The governor stressed that the challenges currently confronting the country would come to an end, when all citizens respect humanity.
Source: Punchng
