Kano govt to build 5,000 houses for teachers

The Kano State government says it has put mechanism in place to build 5,000 housing units for teachers in public primary and secondary schools.

The housing units which will come under the first phase of Teachers Reserved Areas (TRA) scheme, will ensure decent accommodation for teachers and their families, a statement made available to PlatinumPost on Sunday said.

The statement signed by Ameen Yassar, Director –General, Media and Public Relations, Government House, Kano, said that Governor Abdullahi Ganduje explained that the scheme would be implemented jointly by the state government, Family Homes Funds and the Federal Mortgage Bank.

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The statement quoted the governor, who announced the development on Saturday evening during a stakeholders meeting, that the proposed project would see “each of the 36 rural local governments will have 100 housing units while the remaining eight metropolitan local governments will have 150 housing units each.

“The state government would provide the land, auxiliary facilities such as water, electricity and roads while other aspects would be handled by the partners.”

The governor, however, pointed out that participation in the scheme, which would commence next year, is optional and the beneficiaries would pay for the houses in easy installments.

Ganduje stated that his administration is concerned about ensuring affordability of and access to houses for the teachers so that they do not become destitute when they retire from active service.

He said a technical committee under the Executive Chairman of the State Policy Coordination and Policy Implementation Directorate, Rabi’u Sulaiman Bichi has been set up to fashion out modalities for smooth implementation of the project.

In his remarks, the Executive Chairman of the State Policy Coordination and Policy Implementation Directorate, Rabi’u Bichi maintained that the teachers housing initiative was to complement the state Free and Compulsory Education Policy.

“The last time houses were built for teachers in Kano was during the days of the Native Authority”, he said, stressing that the government would tap into available resources at Federal financial institutions, to make the dream a reality.

On his part, the representative of Family Homes Funds, Musa Mukhtar, explained that his agency was willing to work with the government of Kano State to provide decent and affordable accommodation for teachers, adding that the project would create thousands of jobs in the state.