The Federal Government has allocated the sum of N3 trillion from the 2024 budget to construct homes for the impoverished, internally displaced persons, IDPs, and refugees.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, who disclosed this during an inspection visit to prototype houses in Abuja, stressed government’s commitment to provide shelter for those in need.
While inspecting completed and sample houses at Idu Industrial Estate, Abuja, Edu highlighted the urgency of addressing the housing crisis facing vulnerable populations.
The prototype houses, built in just 10 days under a cost-effective model, included one-bedroom and two-bedroom structures constructed by local communities for themselves, costing under N3 million each.
She said “On an inspection of the just completed and sample houses, the president, president Bola Amend Tinubu is committed to providing shelter for the poor, internally displaced persons, and refugees in Nigeria.
“We have to immediately carry out sample of what this shelters will look like so we have 2 of them, one is one bedroom and the second one is two bedroom but they are both samples and these samples are built by the local people in the community for themselves and at the same time is very cost effective and the building was built under 3 million naira and it was built in 10 days.
The minister noted that the government will introduce the use of solar system so that the shelters will not depend on the national grid to take care of the basic electrical needs such as lights, charging of phones and basic ironing.
Edu said the one bedroom and two bedrooms had been built as samples for the shelter programme under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
“Remember that we are dealing with multi dimensional poverty, and parts of the dimensions is the fact that the people do not have a proper shelter over their heads.
“We went to Benue and we saw millions of people who had been displaced and are staying in a shelter that is very tight, and this is a family of six or five living in that little waterproof house and when it rains, it rains on them, when the sun comes down it shun on them and the little children.
“This is totally unacceptable and that’s why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said that we should help this communities and build dignified homes that are built by themselves, this is not going to be built by a contractor, it’s the community that is going to build by themselves, and by way they’ll be empowered, we are training the young people on building skills to be part of it, we also give them the dignity of building the house they will live in.
“This is what will give the community that ownership of the project, by so doing they’ll not vandalize it or destroy it. At the same time it gives them the economic power. Because as they build they are being paid, like those who brought water, cement, sand from the sea, those who cut the wood from the bush were all paid, so that locality or village gets the support need to build themselves up economically so it’s both economic Empowerment, skills Empowerment and most importantly provide shelter for those without shelter.
“They have already done the ground breaking in Benue state, and we speak they have completed the clearing of about 10 hectares giving for the building of the 40 houses.
“The bow hole that will supply water to the building is ongoing, there after the setting and laying of foundation for the building.
“It’s easy to build, this was built basically in 10days . And we want to see how we can put more speed because a lots of IDPs exist in different parts of Nigeria and they need shelter as soon as possible.
“Government intends to build a million shelter across Nigeria for poor, internally displaced persons and refugees which invariably translate to providing shelter to about 5 million Nigerians. Each of this shelter were budgeted at 3million to get them completed and off course this is partly reflected in our budget for 2024, and
“if you recall the federal government had just approved the humanitarian trust fund which has 30 percent donation from the government and the remaining 70 percent are from the private sector and donor agencies, development partners and philanthropic individuals amongst others.
“Benue, Borno, Zamfara, Adamawa, Yobe and other areas where we have internally displaced persons and where we have communities that are extremely poor, and lars of their requirements will be shelter,” she said.
