The Trade Union Congress (TUC), in conjuction with the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited and the Rock of Ages Properties Limited have said they will construct 100,000 housing units for the TUC members in Nigeria.
This was revealed by Bala Kaigama, the President of the Union during his assessment tour on the 5000 housing units whose construction in Rock City Estate, Lugbe, Abuja, and which forms the first cluster /first phase of construction project.
The first phase of the project will occupy 100 hectares and ends in the next 12 months. A total of 443 hectares have been allocated for the whole project.
The president said the need to construct the housing units was instigated by need to provide affordable houses to the company members.
A mixture of types of housing units are going to be constructed, including two and three bedroom apartments, three and four-bedroom terrace duplexes as well as four-bedroom semi-detached duplexes and five-bedroom fully detached duplexes.
According to Mr. Kaigama, the housing project will however receive finance from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) while on the other hand, subscribers of the Housing Fund (NHF) are likely to benefit from the project proposal.
Executive Director of Rock of Ages Properties Limited, Mr. Adike Chux has said the project will surpass the traditional method where one needs to save millions of naira to purchase a home.
According to the Executive Director, about US$8.5m has already been set aside purposely to carter for the United Workers Housing program which will be made accessible to the workers under a mortgage plan to see them own a house under a 30-years repayment arrangement depending on the type of the house.
Nigeria, which is struggling with a massive housing deficit standing at over 2 million housing units, had previously announced that it would need US$353 to cut down the housing deficit. The Federal Bank of Nigeria had earlier pledged US$618.8m for housing projects A number of mass housing projects have been initiated, including Lafarge Africa Plc are investing in construction of housing units in the country.
