YUNUSA MUSA, Jos –
The process for the construction of two bedroom flat and three bedroom flat for local government employees has commenced in Plateau State.
The idea to provide permanent homes for local government employees in the state was born out of partnership between the Plateau State Government and MHUNULG Housing Ltd, a registered estate firm own and run by labor union in the state.
Project Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of MHUNULG Housing Ltd, Comrade Richard Gbawuan disclosed this while receiving technical report on the project submitted by Ash Frontiers Limited, a consulting firm who selected the contractors for the project through biding processes.
According to Comrade Gbawuan, “The estate firm is in partnership with the Plateau State Government for the construction of affordable mass housing units for local government workers”
He explained that, “We noticed the trend where civil servants worked for 35 years and retired without owning a house of their own. After working in the city, they retired and have to depart to the village because they have no home in the city. The change of social setting alone from City to village at such retirement age caused most of them to die due to unfulfilled working life.
“Having consider this trend and the fact that there is no effective mortgage system in the country, we came up with this initiate of a special mortgage proposal where by we will construct houses for civil servants and give it to them on owner occupier bases. From the day you are given the house, you will be paying for the house from your salary and before you retire, the house will become yours. We discussed this initiative with the civil servants, they saw the benefit and we agreed to develop it.
“We then approach the state government for partnership since they are the employer. We then enter an MoU with the state government. Then we went to look for those that will fund the project.
‘The initiative was based on the regular salary policy of the administration of Gov Simon Lalong. With regular salary from the state government, the project is taking off because salary is already guaranteed under this administration”
He said “This a brief ceremony therefore is to receive the technical report from our consultant, Ash Frontiers Limited who handled the contract biding processes.
“The technical report is all we have been waiting for to commence the construction of the houses. And now that we have the report, we will go ahead and ask of financiers to release the funds for the project. And so, I can say confidently that the construction will commence any moment from now”
“Yes, we have to seek the help of a consultant on that field do as to avoid us recruiting quacks to handle the job, we did so to avoid the risk of houses collapsing on our people”
Earlier, the group managing director of Ash Frontiers Ltd Ashen Musa Jacob while submitting the technical report noted that about 500 contractors applied for the project out of which 397 emerged successful in the biding exercise.
He said, “The report contained the profile of each firm screened for the jobs as well as recommendations that will guide the estate firm in awarding the contract.
Jocob said the contractors recommended in the report are those considered to have the required capacity to be awarded the contract.
“My assignment was to advertise the project and select contractors that has requisite experience and expertise to handle the construction, and I have done exactly that.
“The technical work was meant to help us assess the over 500 contractors who bid for the projects. We needed to know their individual capacity and qualifications for the jobs so as to avoid recruiting quacks to handle the constructions”
A number of 370 houses will be constructed in each of the 17 local government of the state for the local government staff, amounting to a total of 6,290 units of houses. The construction are expected to take off simultaneously, completed in six months and handed over to the beneficiaries.
The mass housing scheme, according to Gbawuan, is expected to bridge the house deficit gap in Plateau State.
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