The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, Friday, officially launched an online platform for its National Housing Scheme (NHS), effectively preparing the ground for the sale of over 5,000 housing units in 34 states of the federation.
Speaking at the event in Abuja, he noted that the new portal was expected to facilitate home ownership and rental schemes in both urban and rural areas.
Of the 36 states, it was learnt that while Lagos State is yet to provide the government with land for the scheme, Rivers State is expected to join in the phase three of the project.
The minister called on Nigerians to leverage the opportunities granted by the federal government under the programme to own apartments in any parts of the country of their choice.
While stating that the over 5,000 houses across 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are currently at different stages of completion, the minister noted that that access to affordable houses had remained a challenge for many Nigerians.
He said: “As you know, we have houses scattered across the country that are not occupied. This is because people have a preference for different building styles. In the North, the people there prefer bungalows, while the South prefers blocks of flats.
“So first, what we did was to carry out a survey to know what kind of houses Nigerians want to live in and that helped us to formulate relevant policies for the project.
We currently have over 5,000 units at different stages of completion.”