The governor of Cross River State in southern Nigeria, Bassey Otu, has urged housing corporations to bridge the gap and expand access to affordable homes for low-income earners through scalable and innovative models.
Governor Otu made the call at the opening of a two-day national workshop of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria (AHCN) held in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State.
Otu, who was represented by the Commissioner for Housing, Dr Beatrice Igwe, noted that housing demand continued to outpace supply, while conventional financing models excluded many low-income Nigerians from home ownership.
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He urged housing corporations to “move beyond building isolated estates to creating scalable, replicable systems capable of closing the nation’s housing gap”.
Speaking further, the governor stated that as part of his “People First” agenda, government through a pilot Public-Private-Community Partnership model was in the process of developing 1,500 housing units.
According to him, “The 1,500 housing units would be located across the three senatorial districts. Each district is expected to have 500 housing units. We are also building a 50-unit free housing project for indigent women, and that is about 80 percent completed.”
He sued for stronger collaboration between the association and funding institutions to unlock financing for affordable housing, describing the corporation executives as “architects of dignity” for millions of Nigerians.
Earlier, the national president of the association, Eno Obongha, explained that the two-day workshop was aimed at advancing practical solutions to Nigeria’s housing challenges.
“Housing remains one of the greatest indicators of economic prosperity, social stability and human dignity. Yet, the housing deficit continues to widen, while the dream of home ownership remains beyond the reach of low-income earners,” he said.
Obongha noted that stronger public-private partnerships, innovative construction technologies, land reforms and efficient state housing corporations would be critical to delivering affordable homes at the scale required across the country.
He expressed confidence that recommendations from the workshop would contribute to evolving needs policies that strengthen housing delivery nationwide.
Besides the workshop, the association held its 49th Annual General Meeting and 114th Council Meeting.
