ABUJA – The Committee on Housing and Habitat yesterday held their inaugural meeting, where they frowned on the increasing number of Nigerians who have accommodation challenges in major cities in Nigeria, and vowed to ensure adequate legislative intervention to address it.
The Chairman of the Committee Hon. Mustapha Bala Dawak who who gave the assurance at the inaugural meeting, said that there was need to revisit the National Housing Fund Act to address housing challenges in the country, added that there was housing deficit in Nigeria.
Hon. Dawak therefore called for a system that ensures that tenants contribute a substantial part of their earnings to a mortgage finance institution that can help to finance building of their own houses in the country.
” it is only in Nigeria that someone is working and does not have a roof over his head. We will use our legislative powers to ensure that whatever will bring the problem to the end is done urgently”.
Speaking on the imperatives of an effective oversight of the Ministry of Works and Housing, he noted that the House Committee’s jurisdiction and powers is to oversight only the housing sector.
Other agencies with the legislative purview of the House Committee are: the Federal Housing Authority FHA, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria FMBN and Federal Mortgage Homes.
