Abia State to construct housing estate for civil servants, others

STEVE UNEGBU, Umuahia

The Abia State Government has approved the construction of housing estates across the state for both civil servants and other members of the public.

Consequently, the Abia State Ministry of Housing will soon flag off the construction of a Civil Service Commission, Pocket -friendly Layout Estate in Umuahia as agreements have equally been reached by developers to construct various housing estates.

The Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, disclosed this at Government House Umuahia while briefing news men on the outcome of this week’s State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti.

According to the Commissioner, the move to construct housing estates across the state, which would be done through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, is in line with the vision of Governor Otti to provide for the welfare of Abians.

“In line with the Governor’s vision to provide for the welfare of Abia citizens in terms of housing, the State Ministry of Housing will soon flag off the construction of a Civil Service Commission, Pocket – Layout Estate in Umuahia.

“This will provide quality and affordable housing to Abians. Also, the Ministry is in serious discussions with private developers, under the Public Private Partnership model for the proposed estates at Mbaisii and Mgbarakuma-Ubakala Umuahia.

“The Ministry is on the verge of signing necessary agreements for the developers to move to site without delay”, Prince Kanu noted.

The Commissioner disclosed that the Abia State Electricity Regulatory Authority (ASERA) will soon issue an order for the regularization of all electricity activities in the state before the end of January.

“This is one of the outcomes, of  the release of the final transfer of regulatory authority,from  NERC, to ASERA.

“As a statutory regulator of all electricity sector activities in the state, ASERA will issue that order to ensure quicker resolution of consumer complaints, stronger consumer protection, better service delivery, and a fair balance between operators and electricity consumers going forward”, Prince Kanu stated.

Contributing, the Commissioner for Housing, Architect Chiemela Uzoije, while explaining the reason behind the adoption of the name of the estate located at the former Civil Service Commission premises, said the housing estates, which is for all, would be affordable.

He maintained that the housing projects are in line with the determination of Governor Otti to change the narrative about public housing  in the state and revealed how the estates would be developed.

“Some of them (estates) are  going to be built by us. But the case of the civil service layout is what we call it because, it’s where the Civil Service Commission used to be.

“As a matter of fact, it’s not just for civil servants alone. It’s for the generality of Abians. So civil servants are included.

“We’re about to kick start some of our major projects. As a matter of fact, we’ve already done that because last year, sometime before the end of last year, we signed off with one of the developers who is currently working at Obehie in Ukwa West.

“That is what we call a site and services scheme. In other words, he’s developing the estate for us in conjunction with the state government.

“So that whole area (former  Civil Service Commission premises) , we’re going to turn it into an estate for Abians and it’s going to be for medium income and a segment of the high income class.

“In that place, we’re going to have some blocks of flats. We’re going to have some semi-detached  duplexes and standard duplexes.

 We want to bring a new narrative into the housing sector of the state, because you can agree with me that so far, we don’t really have very functional housing estates in Abia state” Architect Uzoije explained.

Architect Uzoije further said that a combination of models are being applied for the estate development projects.

“The PPP model is going to come into place. Already it’s in place at Obehie, Ukwa West.

We are going to use the same model from Mgbarakuma and part of Ubakala, because we also have the intention of getting a new estate around there.

“But then, the ones inside the town, because of the way they are going to impact on our people in terms of creating jobs, the multiplier effect on the society, we want to make sure that people’s income will be beefed up because so many people are going to be involved.

“So like the Civil Service Commission, the government is going to handle that one and then we are going to create a lot of jobs.

“But these other ones, the government is giving out the land. The government is also participating in the implementation of the housing estate.

 It’s not as if once we give out the land, then we go backwards. No.

The government is going to be part and parcel of the day-to-day management of these estates in order to be sure that they are going to be delivered at the end of the day” Architect Uzoije noted.