Niger needs N348m for mass housing project

THE Niger State government says it would require N348 million to complete the on-going 500-unit Talba Housing Estate being constructed by the government.The project, which is expected to be commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan early next year, is at 70 per cent completion stage.It is part of the 5,000 housing unit the state government planned to provide across the state in order to ease the housing problem in Niger. Already, 500 units of three and two bedroom bungalow have been completed and allocated to residents, mainly civil servants.At a media briefing yesterday in Minna after the State Executive Council meeting, the Commissioner for Land, Nuhu Musa, alongside others, said the project awarded in 2008 had been delayed due to some problems encountered by the contractor handling it.The commissioner disclosed that when the contractors had the initial set back, the state government gave them a N200 million bailout but that some of the houses were affected by windstorm thereafter.Another N500 million was again advanced to the contractors, yet the project ran into fresh hitches, prompting the government to take over the completion of the project, which initial cost was put at N1 billion.Also, the Commissioner for Water Resources, Hajia Hadiza Abdullahi, said the state has expended about N148 million in the past seven months on the provision of water to Minna, the state capital and its environs.He disclosed that only about 40 per cent of Minna and it environs currently has potable water, stressing that provisions have been made in the 2012 budget to care for the remaining 60 per cent of the area.Abdullahi said that in particular, the people of Soje A and B, as well as residents of M I Wushishi housing estates and those at Barken Sale, would have waterpipelines extended to their areas in the first quarter of next year.
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