The Senate Committee on Housing has promised to work with relevant agencies to fast-track the restructuring and commercialisation of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).

Its Chairman, Senator Barnabas Gemade, made this known in Abuja when he led his colleagues on an oversight visit to the Authority’s headquarters.

He said urgent legislative action was required to fast-track the reform and commercialisation of the FHA which had been on-going since 1992.

He said the planned amendment would strengthen the Authority and return it to its pride of place as an effective national instrument for housing delivery.

The lawmaker, who was accompanied by four of his colleagues, noted that the fortunes of the FHA has been adversely affected by somersaults in government’s policy. He said the removal of the FHA from government funding had stacked the odds against the agency and affected its ability to deliver on its mandate.

To strengthen the FHA, Gemade promised that his committee would explore the possibility of its benefitting from the Central Bank’s N30 billion Real Estate Development Intervention Fund. To this end, he directed the Authority’s Managing Director, Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin, to furnish his committee with a list of all its completed and on-going housing projects, including partnership projects, loan portfolio, and nominal roll.

During a visit to the FHA/ENL Paradise Hills Estate, Apo, Abuja, Gemade expressed satisfaction with the quality of work done on the houses.

He said FHA demonstrated a high level of professional competence in delivering quality houses for medium and high income earners and urged it to brace up to build houses for millions of the nation’s low  income earners.

Al-Amin said there was need to strengthen the Authority’s ability to deliver on its social housing mandate through special subventions and regular budgetary allocation.

He appealed to the committee to hasten work on the amendment of the law establishing it. He said the FHA depended solely on public- private partnerships to deliver houses since the government funding for it stopped.