The Minister of Housing  and Urban Development, Ms Ama Pepple, has said that her ministry is ready to continue to collaborate with private sectors for the provision of housing at low costs to Nigerians.

Ms Pepple made this known recently in Abuja when receiving the Senate Committee on Housing, who had paid her a courtesy visit.

“We will also collaborate with other agencies of government to help them if they are developing estates. We are also working with airports, and there is also an ongoing project with the ministry of education. 

“Recently, the River State government wrote to us that they want to collaborate with us to provide housing for their people. I am sure that when all these come together, we will be able to provide more housing for majority of Nigerians.

It was also gathered that the minister frowned at the states of housing  in the scheme of things in terms of budgetary allocations, a situation she insisted had not made things easier for the ministry. She therefore revealed that the ministry had resorted to obtaining loans from financial institutions so as to fund housing projects it embarked on in the country.

In the meantime, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Housing, Senator B. A. Ibrahim, said the visit was, among other things, meant to discuss possible ways by which housing could be made affordable for the poor people in the society.

“We’ve been told about 15 million Nigerians who are not decently housed. It is a very terrible disservice for someone who, for example,  has put in about 35 years into civil service to settle in rented quarters.

“It will therefore be my pleasure to receive from individuals or interest groups opinions on social housing,” said the senator who also added that he would be “very happy to be part of the initiative to build houses for the poorest of the poor in the society.”