The federal government said it had designed mass housing estates which would be built in the six geo-political zones in the country, adding that the project would commence as soon as the 2016 budget was passed.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this at the 9th Architects Colloquium conference in Abuja, explained that the designs of the estates took cognizance of the different environmental factors of each region.

The minister, who was represented by Mr. Sani Gidado, stated that in the past, mass housing estates were built uniformly without consideration for the peculiarity of the environment and the location of the project.

He said for over 16 years, the government had stopped financing housing projects directly, but the present government has reversed the trend and is bent on financing mass housing across the six geo-political zones.

Fashola said, “Over the last 16 years, the government has deliberately stopped financing housing projects, but that has been found to have created problems, especially for the low and medium income groups. For that reason, the present government intends to provide adequate funding for provision of houses projects directly. That is not to say the private-public partnership would be discouraged, no.”

The President, Architects Registration Council of Nigeria, Umaru Aliyu, called on the Federal Government to stop deploying architects on national service in secondary and primary schools, saying this was affecting the years of pupillage the young professionals were supposed to have in order to sit for the professional competency examination.

(Source: PUNCH)