The Federal Government says it would develop organic housing for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country especially those affected by insurgency in the North East.
Mr Umar Gonto, Acting Managing Director, Federal Housing Authority (FHA) said this at an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Housing and Habitat, chaired by Rep. Mustapha Dawaki on Wednesday.
Coined by Frank Lloyd Wright, the term organic architecture is usually use to mean buildings whose shape or function mimics nature.
It also refers to designing and building structures and spaces that are balanced with their natural surroundings and tailored to the function they serve for their inhabitants.
Gonto, however, explained that the FHA took a tour of IDP camps in several states to come up with the right housing solution for displaced persons.
“The FHA took tour of the IDP camps especially in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states in 2016 and 2017 with a view to study the situation and coming up with the right housing solution.
“Organic housing programme is what we intend to deploy in IDP camps. It is a building in such a way that we do it with just one bedroom but it is expandable.
“Depending on the size of the allottee’s family, one bedroom can be increased to a two bedroom, subsequently three or even four bedrooms. We call it organic housing and it is going to be deployed in the North East,” he said.
The acting managing director also urged the committee to intervene for the return of FHA in the Federal Government’s budget so it can assist in the reduction of the housing deficit in the country.
“Our plan for the future is to make sure that we reduce the housing deficit in the country by building one million houses every year within funds that will be provided to us by the government.
“There is a role given to us by the National Housing Policy Decrement of 2012 that FHA is to provide funding for low and no income but with funds provided by the Federal Government and that is the window that we looked into to see that we get back into the budget.
“Since 2005 we have not been in the budget that was why we veered into commercial housing more to take care of our salaries, allowances and other overhead costs,” he said.
He also said that the FHA was calling on investors to assist in the development of the Abuja Diaspora City which was a 750-hectare land located in Maitama 11 and Kabusu axis of Abuja.
Meanwhile, the House Committee on Electoral Matters, chaired by Rep. Aishatu Dukku said it would work towards ensuring assent of President Muhammadu Buhari on the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill.
“As it stands, the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill is still hanging; hence there is need for this committee to bring it up because there are several important amendments that will improve our electoral process.”
Dukku also said the bill required a number of shortcomings to be addressed for the legislative framework to be fully in line with universal and regional standards for elections.
