Wike Urges Firm To Build Affordable Homes For Abuja Residents

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has directed the Abuja Property Development Company (APDC) to expand its affordable housing programme as part of efforts to ease the accommodation burden on residents of Abuja.

Wike gave the directive while commissioning housing units at APDC Homes in Karsana District, Abuja, where he said the strong demand for the development showed the urgent need for more affordable homes in the nation’s capital.

Represented by the group managing director of Abuja Investments Company Ltd. (AICL), Amb Maureen Tamuno, the minister said the FCT Administration was particularly concerned about providing housing opportunities for young Nigerians, school leavers and low-income earners.

He said the studio apartments at the development, which were sold for N15 million each, offered young people and single residents an opportunity to secure decent accommodation and begin their lives in Abuja.

“President Bola Tinubu has decided to take care of different cadres of people, especially the young persons. You can see that young people, school leavers will be able to afford even to live in this type of apartments to start life in Abuja,” Wike said.

According to him, the development, comprising studio and one-bedroom self-contained apartments with kitchens and toilets, was designed to respond to the housing needs of residents with different income levels.

Wike said the quick sale of the studio apartments demonstrated the huge demand for affordable housing in Abuja and justified the need for APDC to develop more such units.

He said government-owned companies, including APDC and AICL, must first identify the needs of residents before developing projects.

“These are what we bring to bear as government-owned company, as APDC, as AICL. We try to meet the needs. We actually search for the needs of the people and then we build to meeting their needs. So this is a welcome development,” he said.

The minister stressed that access to accommodation remained one of the major challenges facing residents of Abuja, adding that affordable housing could significantly improve their welfare.

“Once you have accommodation, especially in a city like Abuja, you have solved one of the major problems facing residents,” he said.

Wike urged APDC to sustain the development of housing schemes targeted at different income groups, saying wider access to homeownership would help reduce pressure on the housing market.

The APDC’s acting managing director, Akeem Kolawole Aderogba, said the company was committed to providing affordable homes for low- and middle-income earners through housing designs suited to different household sizes and income levels.

He said APDC’s housing portfolio included studio apartments, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom flats, providing residents with options to move into larger homes as their families and financial capacity grew.

Aderogbe urged young people and civil servants to take advantage of available mortgage facilities, saying prospective homeowners could make an initial deposit of about 10 per cent and finance the balance through approved housing finance institutions.

He listed the National Housing Fund (NHF), Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board and other mortgage schemes among the financing options available to eligible applicants.

Aderogbe said younger workers had an advantage in accessing housing loans because repayments could be spread over their remaining years in service.

He urged prospective homeowners to begin exploring available financing options early rather than wait until retirement.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of Bashmoh Homes Ltd., a property developer partnering with APDC, Alhaji Bashir Jimo…