THE Minister of Housing, Ms Ama Pepple, when commenting on the current housing shortage in the country, believed to be around 16 million, has said it is imperative for the shortage to be addressed, while also indicating her optimism that the deficit is gradually being reduced.

This was contained in a report made available by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria  (FMBN), which also declared that the minister recognised the fact that many Nigerians still had the notion that social housing scheme, which provides mass houses at cheaper prices, was not feasible; but added that the minister believed that the scheme was workable.

The minister of Housing, it was revealed, has urged FMBN to further work towards providing quality houses at affordable prices for the teeming Nigerian population.

Pepple lauded the efforts of the FMBN management to increase participation in the National Housing Fund by bringing more states to contribute to the scheme. She implored the FMBN management to continue with the efforts in order to enable more Nigerians benefit from the housing scheme.

Currently, according to the report, about 12 states are not contributing to the National Housing Fund, a Federal Government’s housing scheme administered by the FMBN, which provides housing loans at six per cent to eligible contributors to the scheme.

It was further revealed that the Executive Director, Organisation Resourcing Department, FMBN, Mr Mike Nwogbo,  said the bank had been working towards improving the housing stock in Nigeria.

According to him, the bank was sourcing mortgage funds through the  NHF as well as through the capital market. Nwogbo added that the bank had, through the NHF, collected N73.6 billion from contributors as at July, 2011, while N72.4 billion had been disbursed for housing finance also as at July 2011.