Lagos to invest $500m on housing

The Lagos State Government is to invest 500 million dollars on redesigning and completion of housing units at Ilubirin and Ijora-Badia.

The state’s Commissioner for Housing, Mr Gbolahan Lawal, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Lagos.

Lawal said the investment would be done in collaboration with private partners and that the venture would create 10,000 direct jobs.

“There is need to redesign and expand the mass housing units at Ilubirin and Ijora Badia to allow for efficient utiisation of resources and for better quality delivery.

“We have signed a Public- Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with First Investment Development Company (FIDC) in this regard.

“The project will be in phases and is expected to be fully completed within the next five years,’ Lawal said.

He explained that the PPP arrangement was to reduce the housing deficit in the state by providing affordable and qualitative accommodation for residents and to also create jobs.

“The ministry of housing is responsible for implementation of the programme, which has three templates, namely, affordable mass housing; equity partnership housing and mixed partnerships.

“Under the first template, government provides land and development plan while the partner provides funds and executes.

“Secondly, government will provide the land while the partner generates the plan, provides fund and executes.

`The third template, which is mixed partnership, will see the partner providing the land while government will provide the funds and also execute the development plan,’’ the commissioner explained.

He assured that any of the templates adopted would be in the best interest of Lagos residents.

NAN recalls that some residents of Lagos had expressed concern over the condition of housing estates in Ilubirin and Ijora Badiya.

One of the residents, Mr Tola Ade, called on government to complete the estates for interested members of the public to benefit.

“The estates at Ilubirin and Ijora appear to have been abandoned for some time.

“I appeal to the State Government to complete these estates and other uncompleted ones within the state so that we can begin to take advantage of them,” he said.

Another resident, Mr Adeniyi Idowu, who also expressed similar views, said the State Government was doing well in infrastructure development but that the estate at Ijora Badiya had remained abandoned for some time.

“I can only appeal to the government to complete the estate and the one at Ilubirin to reduce the scarcity of accommodation,” he said.

Similarly, Mrs Yemisi Martins, another resident also appealed to the State Government to do something about the “abandoned” estates to stop miscreants from using them for their criminal activities.