The Federal Government has commenced construction of a housing estate under its Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) Programme to ease the accommodation challenges of workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
The housing estate, comprising 116 2-Bedroom Semi-Detached Bungalows is located in Gwagwalada, FCT.
Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the Housing Estate on Thursday where she noted that this was part of efforts aimed at accelerating the attainment of the Federal Government’s agenda of ensuring the welfare of civil servants through the provision of quality and affordable housing.
Yemi-Esan recalled that the FISH programme was conceptualised as a vehicle to address the housing deficit civil servants were faced with consequent upon the implementation of the Monetization Policy which led to the sale of Federal Government-owned residential quarters across the country.
She, however, noted while modest efforts were made to effectively drive the FISH programme from inception, a number of constraints impeded its rapid implementation.
“The overarching constraint among others was the absence of an implementation framework of the FISH programme, including galvanizing support and facilitating infrastructure and funding for the delivery of affordable housing to civil servants.
“This limitation, therefore, necessitated the inauguration of an Inter-Ministerial Implementation Committee on the FISH Programme to address the public sector housing deficit from a multifaceted approach.
“Hence, it is pleasing to note that the inauguration of the committee and its subsequent revitalisation by the Office of the Head of Service has begun yielding positive results across the various FISH Estate projects,” she said.
The Head of Service, commended the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, under the leadership of the Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola for graciously providing the expansive land located in a prime area which spans about five (5) hectares.
“With this provision, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, through the FISH Programme is well on course to construct an estate comprising 116, 2-Bedroom Semi-Detached Bungalows,” she said.
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