The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, during his Democracy Day speech, intrigued Nigerians with his promise of a Family Home Fund housing scheme which Nigerians who can pay as little as N30,000 per month could afford. Facing several questions about the project in an interview with journalists after the speech, Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande revealed more facts about the program.
What we know so far
- The scheme forms the first phase of the N1 trillion Social Housing Fund of the Buhari administration, which is the largest in the history of the country
- The project has both the World Bank and AFDB, alongside the FG, as contributors to the fund.
- Developers will borrow 80% of the cost of the building project from the N100 billion pool and counter fund the remaining part of the project with their own 20%.
- The total cost of the houses could be as low as N2.5m, which means that subscribers paying N30,000 monthly would require 84 months or 7 years to pay off.
- The project has commenced in 11 states in the country already, with land already provided for the project in these states.
What remains unknown
- While Mr. Akande claims the total cost of the houses may as low as N2.5 million, no official statement from the Presidency on what the total cost of each housing unit will be.
- The criteria for accessing the loans still remain unknown as it is still unclear as to if and how members of the informal sector will be included in the project.
- It is also unclear whether other states in the Federation will key into the program as Acting President Osinbajo expects that the Fund will jump-start and expand construction exponentially across the country.
- Another grey area relating to the scheme involves whether residency or place of birth will be used to determine the candidates for the scheme.
