Chinese developers to invest $300m in mass housing scheme

Chinese investors are investing $300m in mass housing schemes for low and middle income earners, as part of measures to bridge the rising accommodation and shelter gaps in the country,.

The Assistant Director, Director of the One Belt One Road Financing Operation in China, Mr Steven Kim, made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja at the operational briefing of the ZVECAN consulting and Engineering Limited.

This was as the Managing Director, Zvecan Homes and Estate, Mr Nicholas Ogbedo, said over 5000 civil servants, who were the initial off-takers and completing their documentaries with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board (FGSHLB), would be the first beneficiaries of the homes to be built on request in one bedroom, two bed-rooms and others bungalows in the allocated locations in the FCT.

The briefing was to update developer’s inputs for the off-takers in the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) initiated by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF) Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, as part of measures by the Federal Government to provide affordable housing for the Federal Civil Servants before they retired from service.

According to Kim, who spoke through an interpreter, Mr Sylvester Osagie Aigbe, most of the $300m would be spent on local raw materials and technical manpower, while some importations including raw materials, not readily available in Nigeria, would be imported from China.