The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has met with members of the northeast humanitarian hub team and pledged the support of the Federal Government and the National Economic Council (NEC) in the establishment of a Social Innovation and Research Institute (SIRI), an initiative of NEHIH aimed at developing skills and building capacity for social innovation.
During the meeting on Tuesday, the Vice President said that the idea of establishing a centre for social innovation as conceived by the NEHIH was good, emphasizing that “I don’t think there is enough attention being paid to the local needs of social innovation.
“I really think that this proposed institute can do enough in terms of capacity building and leveraging on ideas. And also making a lot of the innovations relevant to our demands and needs here in Nigeria.”
Prof. Osinbajo added that “part of the work I think SIRI might end up doing is in looking at our peculiar humanitarian condition, because the humanitarian condition that we find ourselves in Nigeria is enormous, a huge one.
“So, there is an opportunity here to teach the rest of the world how to deal with this, especially from the point of view of education of children in conflict situations, and even entrepreneurship in a conflict situation.”
Other participants at the meeting include the coordinator of the Hub, Mr. Ahmad Moddibo, the SIRI project coordinator at the hub, Nguveren Mary, among others.
Social Housing: Prototype Units Launched In Fct, Construction Set To Start In 12 States
The plan by the Federal Government to support 1.5 million Nigerians to acquire low-cost houses Under the Social Housing program of the ESP is on course as the portal for application by prospective beneficiaries was launched in December 2020 alongside the prototype 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units.
During a visit over the weekend to the completed model houses in Dei Dei at the Federal Capital Territory, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, reiterated the FG’s commitment to delivering decent and affordable accommodation that will be within the reach of many Nigerians.
The plan is to have a Rent to Own option as part of the Buhari administration’s resolve to impact the common man in the social housing scheme expected to also generate 1.8m jobs and deliver houses to about 1.5m Nigerian families.
Already sites for early start projects have been identified in all the 6 geo-political zones in addition to the FCT.
The sites include those in Ekiti and Ogun in the Southwest, Enugu, and Abia in the Southeast, Delta, and Edo in the South-south, Yobe, and Bauchi in the Northeast, Kaduna and Katsina in the Northwest and Nasarawa and Plateau in the North-central. Sites have also been identified in Abuja.
To kickstart the social Housing projects, the CBN has already committed to an N200B facility with a guarantee by the FG via the Finance Ministry.
The implementing agency, Family Homes Fund Ltd, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Finance has already mobilized thousands of Cooperatives groups across the country who will participate in the social Housing plan as the main warehouse agents and mobilize low-income buyers.
For instance, FHF met recently with 93 Cooperative Leaders from the 6 geographical zones, under the aegis of the Co-Operatives Federation of Nigeria.
