By Oyintutu Oyinkolade
The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqa Darma, has vowed to revive an abandoned 120 unit housing project in Gwagwalada, Abuja.
Darma made the commitment on Thursday during an inspection of the abandoned National Housing Programme project in Gwagwalada.
He said that the ministry would find ways to complete the project and ensure that Nigerians benefited from the housing units by December 2026.
“We will find ways from now to December 2026 to complete this.
“I’m not saying the ministry is going to fund the completion of this, but we are going to find ways to make sure that this project benefits Nigerians,” he said.
According to him, it is unacceptable for a project capable of providing homes for 120 families to remain abandoned for years.
The minister said that government had made several efforts over the years to provide housing for Nigerians, stressing the need for officials to make concerted efforts to complete projects meant to benefit the people.
He said allowing the project to remain abandoned would amount to wasting taxpayers’ money.
“If we have a project of this magnitude that can house 120 people, 120 families, we should have a way of completing this project.
“We should have thought outside the box to complete this project, if we allow this thing to go like that, we are wasting taxpayers’ money,” he said.
He expressed concern over the condition of some of the structures, saying some might require reconstruction or reinforcement.
Earlier, Mrs Ene Agada, Assistant Director, Public Buildings and Housing Development in the ministry, said the project started in 2016.
Agada said approval processes, COVID-19 pandemic and rising construction costs affected the project.
She said that the contractors later informed the ministry that they could no longer continue with the project due to the prevailing economic situation.
“At the point it started, there was an issue that made us to leave the site. The issue has to do with approval processes,” she said.
According to her, the ministry determined the project in 2024 and subsequently re-awarded it to new contractors after scaling it down to enable available funds to be used to complete it.
She said that the new contractors were also unable to return to site after construction costs increased following the removal of fuel subsidy.
Also speaking, Mr Pemi Temitope, Director of Public Buildings and Housing Development, said that the second set of contractors had done some work on the project but were no longer on site.
He said that the contractors had applied for advance payments, while some outstanding valuations and performance certificates were yet to be paid.
“The contractors are yet to receive the advance payment. Some of them have put some funds on the project. Valuation has been raised that have not been paid,” he said.
He said that the ministry would continue to engage the contractors and seek alternative funding to complete the project. (NAN)
Edited by Maureen Ojinaka/Funmilayo Adeyemi
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