In its 40 years of existence, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has only been able to deliver 37,000 housing units, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms Amal Pepple has revealed.

 Against this background, Pepple regrettably maintained that the agency had failed the nation in its core mandate of provision of mass housing.

 The minister disclosed this in Abuja last week during the inaugural meeting of the steering committee on the restructuring and commercialisation of the FHA. She said, “Since inception about 40 years ago, the FHA has been able to build only 37,000 housing across the country. This is an average of less than 1,000 houses per annum, currently; the housing deficit in Nigeria is estimated at 17 million units.

Pepple however added the seeming helplessness of the agency was rooted in the myriad challenges which her ministry had come up with strategic actions to address. Some of the constraints, according to her include historical operating losses, huge legacy debts, poor internally generated revenue base, and poor corporate governance.

Other constraints, she noted, included high cost of housing units (dependence on government funding) and lack of government policy cohesion The minister stated that it was in a bid to confront these challenges militating against proper effectiveness of the agency headon that the Federal Government constituted a committee in May 2012 to examine its current structural operations. She explained that the strategy was part of the efforts aimed at re-positioning and strengthening the agency for effective service delivery. “The committee submitted its report in August making far reaching recommendations for the structural overhaul and commercialisation of the FHA, “The recommendations of the committee were approved by Mr President in December 2012 and a technical board was inaugurated to oversee the affairs of the authority during the restructuring period, “she said.

 She noted that the steering committee inaugurated would work with the technical board and the interim management team to ensure the full commercialisation of the FHA in accordance with the Public enterprises Act 1999. She explained, “Members of the committee and its terms of reference were approved by the National Council on Privatisation chaired by Vice President Nnamadi Sambo recently. She said the commercialisation of the agency was aimed at boosting the housing sector with a view to addressing the lingering housing challenges of the people.

 Pepple further explained that the decision taken by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) would still address the huge housing deficit in the country, adding that the process would curb inability to effectively function without government funding and borrowing from other institutions as a means of survival. Other issues that the re-packaged agency would address, according to the minister, include poor financial management and corporate reporting practise, poor information technology, infrastructure, corporate affairs framework and political interference and meddling.

2013-08-01