Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, says 10,000 houses are to be built in Borno State to bridge the housing deficits there.
She said the deficit was caused by the decade long Boko Haram insurgency that had claimed over 36,000 lives and destroyed property worth $9 billion which is equivalent to over N4 trillion.
There are already 1,000 housing units under construction at Ngwon village along the Maiduguri-Dikwa Road.
The N20 billion housing project by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is to ensure the return of displaced persons currently in camps to their respective communities.
Managing Director of the North East Development Commission, NEDC, Mohammed Alkali, said the insurgents destroyed 60% of the housing stock in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe States.
The Commission’s target is to relocate IDPs to their homes and close down 24 camps in Maiduguri, Dikwa, Monguno, Gwoza, Damboa, Pulka, and Banki which are two border communities with Cameroon.
Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for the housing project, which he said would help facilitate the return of many IDPs back to their ancestral homes.
He said Borno State with over 1.5 million IDPs is committed to ensuring that all IDP camps in Maiduguri metropolis and Jere Local Government Area are closed, on or before, May 2021.
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The NEDC also inaugurated a 30-bed capacity Covid-19 Treatment Centre, in one of the IDP camps along the Maiduguri-Damboa Road, in Maiduguri, the state capital.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
