President Ahmed Bola Tinubu has performed the ground breaking of 250 housing units in Ebonyi State, tagged Ebonyi Renewed Hope Estate.
The event took place Wednesday at Umuoghara, Ezza North Local government area of the state, site for the estate.
The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, who performed the function on behalf of the President explained that the housing estate comprised of 50 units of 1 bedroom, 150 units of 2 bedroom and 50 units of 3 bedroom semi detached bungalows.
He noted that the event marked the commencement of the second leg of the nationwide ground breaking exercise for housing projects under the Renewed hope cities and Estates Programme which President Tinubu launched in February with the ground breaking of 3,112 housing units in Abuja.
According to Dangiwa, this second leg which would feature ground breaking for a total of 2000 Renewed Hope housing units in 8 states in the southern and North Central regions of the country comprises of 250 housing units each, starting with Ebonyi and followed by Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Osun, Oyo, Benue and Nasarawa States.
The Minister recalled that the Ministry last month, following the presidential flag-off, had embarked on the first leg of the exercise leading to the ground breaking of 1,500 housing units in the Northern part of Nigeria which included 250 housing unit in Renewed hope estates, one in Katsina, Yobe, Gombe and Sokoto, and 500 housing units, Renewed Hope city in Kano.
Dangiwa further explained: “Under phase one of this Programme, we plan to deliver about 50,000 housing units across Nigeria.
“This include 7 renewed hope cities that will be between 500 to 1,000 housing units per state in each of the six geopolitical zones of the country and the FCT while the renewed hope estate will have 250 housing units per site in the remaining 30 states of the federation.
“Work is currently ongoing in each of these states, and our plan is to have them all completed within the next 3 months and made available to Nigerians in line with the President’s desire to provide quality housing for all Nigerians.
The Minister commended Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi for being the first in South-east to provide land for the project stating that the gesture has achieved 30 % reduction in the cost of the project.
He emphasized that the project was being funded with N50 billion 2023 supplementary Budget, and urged states with ready sites to indicate so that they can be captured in the second phase of the programme.
He added: “With these housing programmes, we want amass the potentials of housing development to create jobs, uplift lives and boost economic activities and development.
“We aim to create jobs for over 6,000 people with the project.”
In his address, the Governor of Ebonyi state, Francis Nwifuru, applauded the initiative, describing housing as one of the priority needs of citizens.
Nwifuru, represented by his Deputy, Mrs Patricia Obila, urged the federal government to give Ebonyi indigenes nothing less than 60% chances of acquiring the houses in the estate, especially the low income earners.
Speaking for the contractors, the Chief Executive, Proportion and Construction Development company, Olukayode Remos assured that they would deliver highest standard jobs and agreement with specifications.
The Minister was accompanied to the event by the Minister of State, Abdullah Gwarzo, represented by a Director of Engineering in the Ministry, Samuel Nwafor.
