Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:
One Hundred and Fifty Units of Housing only symbolize our Government’s very deep footprint in Housing Provision in Enugu State.
These 150 Units are part of a 404 Housing Unit Provision in Enugu State all of which have been completed.
The 404 Units represent yet another part of a larger number 1,520 units in 9 projects all of which have been completed except 3 projects.
This is part of the multi-pronged response of our Government to the challenges of multi-dimensional poverty.
A total of 1,520 new home owners in one state of Nigeria deserves attention because it represents change.
This is proof that the determination to lift people out of poverty is real.
No matter the size of the challenge and the number of people involved, a commitment such as this FMBN-I-Connect housing project, that is faithfully implemented, begins to chip away, and replace problems with solutions.
A few days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari personally opened a 748-unit Housing Estate in Zuba, Federal Capital Territory.
In the weeks and months before now, Directors of the FMBN have been doing exactly the same thing in their various estates across Nigeria.
Today on behalf of the Federal Government, the train of prosperity stops in Enugu to create 404 new home owners.
To them I say congratulations and bye-bye to poverty.
But I must tell you that these are not the only beneficiaries.
Surveyors, Architects, Construction companies, their employees, artisans, suppliers, transporters and many more involved in the construction section of the economy have benefitted directly and indirectly.
In all, well over a thousand individuals and seventy different small businesses were involved here.
Indisputably, whether President Buhari meets these people or not, and it is not likely he can meet all of them, his policies, programmes and projects have met them at their point of need.
New policy reforms have also recently been implemented with regard to title documents by digitizing the Federal Lands Registry.
After scanning 50,000 files of over 2.4 million pages, the first set of e-C of Os were presented last week Friday 12th May 2023.
This is another measure of prosperity because land with title has more value than land without.
Furthermore, our processes which used to take between 30-90 days can now be completed in 24 hours if all requirements are provided.
This is also a departure from poverty if you agree that time is money.
Of course, it follows that these title documents will become documents of critical economic inclusion as colla teral for access to credit by way of mortgages or other means.
These are indisputably solid building blocks of prosperity against poverty.
A lot has been done and is being done with regard to housing provision by State Governments and the Private Sector.
While that work continues, it is my pleasure to acknowledge what FMBN and their developers have done here and elsewhere and to commission this Estate.
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Honourable Minister of Works and Housing
Tuesday 16th May 2023
