To tackle the over 20 million housing deficit in Nigeria, Echostone Nigeria Limited, a property development firm, has signed a joint development agreement with the Nigerian Police to deliver 100,000 homes across the country.
The property development firm which has before now partnered with different levels of the government believes the agreement will impact the social, economic and even the financial status of the police officers.
“The project will be 1, 2 & 3 bedroom high-quality homes will be built to the highest quality standard and in a very beautiful environment with parks, gardens, schools, shops; every estate will be fully infrastructure with paved roads, drainages, water, power (on and off-grid) and sewage systems and treatments”, said Sammy Adigun, Director at Echostone.
Adigun said the parties to the agreement intend to help policemen and women to own their homes in their chosen location nationwide, a move that would motivate police officers to be more committed.
The signing of the agreement held at the Police Headquarters in Abuja.
According to Echostone, local and international partnership will be mobilized to achieve the project seamlessly.
“Echostone is the only IFC EDGE (World Bank) Certified (Green) developer in Nigeria, which gives the Police huge confidence in the quality of homes that they will be getting from Echostone”, Founder/ CEO, Echostone International, Anthony Recchia has said.
It is, however, worthy of note that the partnership is the first of its kind in housing delivery in Nigeria.
According to the developer, all the ingredients required for a successful housing project delivery has been taken into one agreement.
For instance, Echostone is the developer, the Nigeria Police Property Development Company (NPPDC) will provide the land, while the Nigeria Police Force Mortgage Bank (NPFMB), stands as the Mortgage Facility and the Nigeria Police as the off-takers.
The development is planned over the next 5 years, even as the project scope includes; 100,000 homes; with 1000Km of roads and drainages, which will have other additional infrastructure of 1 billion litres of water supply and storage.
The project is also expected to have 1000 Megawatts of on and off-grid power supply and distribution; 50,000 direct jobs and 2.5 million indirect jobs.
“The homes will come with mortgages of up to 25 years with an interest rate of only 6 per cent per annum. Some policemen who cannot qualify for a mortgage immediately will benefit from Rental housing program with an option to buy”, Managing Director, Police Mortgage Bank, Managing Director/CEO, Suleiman, Abubakar explained.
It would be recalled that Echostone already have an existing agreement with Family Homes Fund (FHF) and Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) to facilitate the development of hundreds of thousands of homes all over the country.
Echostone, also recently signed with the Federal Integrated Staff Housing Scheme an agreement to develop 15,000 homes.
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