Fayemi flags off building of 5,000 houses in Ekiti

The Government of the western Nigerian state of Ekiti says it will build 5,000 low cost housing units before the end of 2014.

Governor Kayode Fayemi said this at the commencement of “the Eyi Yato Housing Estate’’ as part of activities marking his third year in office in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday.

Fayemi said the decision to build the housing units was meant to reduce the challenges facing the people in either acquisition or rental of property in the state.

The governor said that housing finance was the greatest challenge of the housing sector in the country.

He said he would facilitate mortgage loans to workers to purchase the houses through the National Housing Fund (NHF).

Fayemi said that government would synergise with a private developer – JD Ford Nigeria Ltd., to bring the dream to reality.

The governor said 1,000 units of houses at Eyi Yato Housing Estates would be supervised by the developer and the Ekiti State Fountain Holdings.

The governor said that this covered a large expanse of land measuring about 34.9 hectares.

He said that other developers were being wooed by the state government to build the proposed Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and Federal Road Safety Commission’s (FRSC) estates located on Iyin and Ijan roads.

Fayemi pledged that the government would provide CCTV Camera, police posts, roads and would ensure uninterrupted power and water supply in all the estates.

The Commissioner for Housing, Mr Remi Olorunleke, said the project would stimulate home economy, saying that many of the workers and contractors working at the site were indigenes of the state.

The Managing Directors of JD Ford Nigeria Ltd., Mr John Okonkwo, and his counterpart in Ekiti Fountain Holding, Mr Muyiwa Ogunmilade, said that about 120 housing units were under construction in the estates.

He said that 300 of the houses would be built before the end of 2013.