INTRODUCTION – HOUSING SCHEME
Housing is one of the most basic and oldest development of mankind. Because of its necessity and importance, it has evolved tremendously overtime. Due to rural-urban migration, mass housing scheme has become an inevitable part in the department of cities, most significant of the development of the idea of mass housing scheme are industrial revolution which brought about massive movement of people from rural to urban areas in search of jobs to earn a wage or salary.
Abuja being a city undergoing massive development due to the fact that it is the Federal Capital – Territory of Nigeria, also in turn faces massive urbanization due to the movement of people to the city in search of jobs. Mass Housing development have also been provided by it government as a solution to shelter to an ever growing-urban population, and also to provide a re-settlement scheme for the original settlers of the area.
The FCT administration in the past few years has made the provision of housing for it’s inhabitants an important issue, one of the most significant efforts put by the FCT government is the initiate of programmes and policies.
Mass Housing in Abuja
There are several mass housing scheme being developed in Abuja at the moment, most of which have be sold off part by part by the Federal government to the private individual or to private investors.
The different mass housing schemes have been grouped into categories according to the initial idea of construction, these include.
1. Initial government housing scheme
2. Re-settlement housing scheme
3. Private intervention housing scheme
1. The initial government scheme: Includes different mass housing schemes which were started up from its offset by the government, all the way through the construction stage, up to the finishing, but of recent have been contracted off by the government to the private firms. Mass housing area under this include:
(i) Gwarimpa Housing Estate: – Which is the largest house
(ii) Federal Housing Lubge
(iii) Kado estate
(iv) Games village – which was build for 8th all African games which was held in Nigeria in 2003.
2. Re-settlement scheme: – The area which had been selected by the government for development of the city of Abuja was already inhabited by the Gbagys, who are the original settlers. Due to this, the settlers had to be displaced from their place of origin and the (FCT) Act of 1976 placed the entire hand mass of the FCT under the control of the Federal Government. After this, the FCT government decided to construct different housing units in different part of Abuja for this original settlers to be relocated and re-settled.
The master plan provided the following options for the relocation of existing residents.
(i) Relocation outside FCT
(ii) Relocation within FCT
(iii) Relocation within the to the villages which already have some of the basic community facilities.
The idea of which was to accommodate the Gbagy people who are the original settlers of the area Abuja and include
– Kubwa
– Apo
– Galuwi/Shere
– Wasa
– Anagada
Private intervention scheme: The private intervention schemes are those which from the offset of construction have been handed over to private firms by the Federal Government. In this case the FCT selects an area and sells off plots of land to these private firms at a subsidized rate after which the firm designs and construct the housing units. These include:
(i) Sun city – Sun city comprises of apartments buildings, duplex and bungalows.
(ii) Sunny ville
(iii) Prince and Princess
(iv) Katampe Housing Estate
The private intervention usually concern private investors and corporation who want to see a big return / profit from their development.
CONCLUSION
Despite the effort by the Federal Capital Administration in solving the problem of housing in the FCT and environs, there are several problems which becomes a hindrance to a successful housing deliverance. These includes
· Affordability
· Accessibility
· Lack of infrastructures and supports facilities
· Variety of housing types
· Inadequate supply of housing
· Location of housing
· The quality of housing etc.
All these problems made it very difficult for the middle class (most times the lower class and middle class) and the lower class inhabitants of the city still live in deplorable condition.
REFERENCES
Hardo J.E Caincross S & Saftert in Waite D. (1990) The poor die Young Housing and Health in Third world cities.
Hall, P., Ward C. (1998) Sociable cities: The legacy of Ebenezer Howard England John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
Hoff M.d (2001) Sustainable Community Development: Studies in Economics Environmental and Cultural Revitalization. Florida, Lewis Publishers.