Sample of one of the houses
The Federal Government has concluded plans to build one million renewed hope low-cost shelters for the very poor, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees across the country.
A press release by the Deputy Director of Information in the Ministry, Rhoda Ishaku Iliya said the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu announced this during an inspection of prototype shelters of two sample houses (one bedroom and two bedrooms) at Idu village in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
This special project, according to the minister, is in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to providing dignified shelters for the poor, internally displaced persons and refugees in the country. This is one of the ways of addressing multidimensional poverty in the country.
She opined that both samples were built by the local people in that community for themselves, using local materials in ten days and very cost-effective, this will be applicable across Nigeria.
She said the government wants to achieve the project in a record time because lots of IDPs exist in different parts of Nigeria, and they need a befitting shelter they can call their homes.
Recently, an IDP camp was burnt down in Borno state and Benue state has millions without shelter due to the farmers-herders clash.
Dr. Edu said, “what is also interesting about the project is the fact that we want to introduce solar energy to it so that the shelters are not dependent on the National Grid, but they can use the solar energy to provide at least the basics such as bulb light, electricity for charging their phones and do their basic things within the locality”.
The Minister further stated that Mr. President directed that the shelters be built by the local community to provide them with skills and economic empowerment, as well as the dignity of owning their houses which they built by themselves under strict supervision by professionals
“The project is not a contract or to be built by a contractor. The local community will be given the dignity of building the house they will live in. They will see it as their project, they will own it, and they will not vandalize or destroy it.
“To ensure quality control, the construction of the houses will be supervised by professional architects, engineers, and support from the Federal Ministry of Works”, she added.
Dr. Edu said that the shelters will be built in Benue, Borno, Zamfara, Yobe, Cross River, Ebonyi Lagos Adamawa Bayelsa, and other states that have large numbers of IDPs, Refugees, and extremely poor Nigerians.
According to her, the groundbreaking ceremony of the houses was done in Benue State, where the building of 40 shelters was flagged off.
She also disclosed that ground clearing has been concluded in the 10 hectares of land in Benue while block moulding and preliminary work like digging is ongoing.
