Kano govt, FMBN collaborate on housing for workers

By Bosede Olufunmi

The Kano State Government is to collaborate with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) to address the state’s housing deficit.

The State Deputy Governor, Dr Nasiru Gawuna, disclosed this on Friday when he received a delegation of the FMBN in Kano.

Gawuna said the state government was committed to ensuring that the people in the state, especially workers, availed themselves of the FMBN services.

He said that state’s strategic standing in the country would be of advantage in accessing the services of the organisation to the benefit of its people.

“It is due to this positive development that we are trying to liaise with some competent developers to see how we can come up with a proposal to make sure that we commence doing something very tangible on this issue.

“On our part, the state government has constructed over 2,000 housing units at Kwanar Gurjiya to alleviate the housing problem, especially for the civil servants and other low-income earners,’’ the deputy governor said.

Gawuna said that some civil servants in the state had developed keen interest in the contributory housing scheme which was a clear indication of the progress so far achieved by the programme in Kano.

He said that a conclusion would probably be reached so that all civil servants in the state could participate in the FMBN scheme.

Earlier, the Managing Director of FMBN, Mr Ahmed Dangiwa, said the visit was to strengthen the long term relationship between the organisation and the Kano State Government.

Dangiwa said that the FMBN was created by an act to provide affordable housing finance to Nigerians through systematic utilisation of the housing funds that constituted 2.5 per cent of contributions by Nigerians.

He said that in collaborating with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) at the national level, it had commenced a pilot scheme of constructing 100 housing units in each state of the Federation.

The FMBN boss said that currently two states were chosen per geopolitical zone, including Abuja and Lagos, and the project had already commenced in those places.

He said that his team purposely visited Kano State to see how it could continue to participate in the scheme due to its position as a commercial centre, not only in Nigeria but also on the continent.

Dangiwa commended Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state for his administration’s outstanding performance in executing infrastructure development in the state.