The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, has assured the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) of the federal government’s commitment to providing decent and affordable housing to its officers and men across the country.
The minister gave the assurance at the maiden edition of the Nigeria Police Housing Summit held at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja.
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Dangiwa, who reiterated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for Housing is a holistic plan to ensure every Nigerian, including members of the Force, has access to decent and affordable housing, also said the theme of the summit, “Renewed Hope for Police Housing in Nigeria,” speaks to the acknowledgement of past challenges, the commitment to overcoming them, and the optimism for a brighter future.
Through the managing director and chief of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Shehu Usman Osidi, the minister reiterated the essence of the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme, and urged the Force to embrace strategic partnerships with housing agencies like the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Housing Authority towards realising decent, affordable and safe housing for officers and men of the Force.
He outlined some of the outcomes of previous engagements between the Federal Mortgage Bank and the NPF, to include; over N2.9 billion in mortgage loans disbursed to 807 police beneficiaries, N2.1 billion disbursed to the Police Cooperative Housing Development Company to construct 806 housing units, about N158 million disbursed to 22 beneficiaries under the Rent-to-Own platform, and over N289 million as home renovation loan to 316 officers.
Other initiatives, according to Dangiwa, also include the funding of ongoing housing projects for the Police cooperative in various locations in Abia, Adamawa, Ogun, Kaduna and the FCT; the refund of a cumulative sum of over N1.8 billion to 18,619 retired police officers, as well as N3 billion in mortgage loans to the Nigeria Police Multi-purpose Cooperative Society and Nigeria Police Force Property Development and Construction Company Ltd, for the construction of 236 housing units at Goza, Wawa District, Abuja.
In his address, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, alluded to the importance of the summit, stressing that “the housing capacity of the Force is about 10–12 percent of the over 400,000 workforce, and due to long years of neglect, the existing and available barracks accommodations are largely unsuitable and incompatible with 21st century policing architecture that we desire to build.”
He said the summit was conceived as a platform to discuss and dilate ideas to actualize their vision of accessible and affordable housing for officers and men of the Nigeria Police and would be held on a yearly basis henceforth.