Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has faulted the N35.6bn provided for the National Housing Programme in the 2016 budget.

He spoke during an interactive session with members of the House of Representatives Committee on Housing chaired by Rep Mustapha Bala Dawaki (APC, Kano). Fashola said the amount would “not even scratch the country’s housing deficit in the back”.

He said: “When the housing programme takes off properly, we’ll be talking about hundreds of billions and even trillions. Let’s look at the N35.6bn as a way of implementing the concept, then we should have massive funds for the whole programme.”

Also the director of architectural services in the ministry, Arch Sani Gidado, said they were ready for the implementation of the programme nationwide, but that only 17 states had provided lands for the programme, while two had indicated interest.

But members of the committee picked holes in the inability of the department to come up with proper designs almost six months into the year, calling for equal spread of houses among the states.