The Cross River State Government has entered into its first major partnership in 34 years with private developers towards achieving its housing needs of the populace.

The last time the state embarked on such housing programme was under the military regime of late Brigadier Udoakaha Esuene in the early seventies before the regime was terminated in 1975 in a military coup.

Under the new public-private-partnership scheme, the state government plans to build an ambitious 7,500 housing units across the state in the next four years. The first phase of the project, christened Akpabuyo Housing Scheme, is targeted at civil servants and other public officers in the state.

The state governor, Liyel Imoke recently performed the groundbreaking ceremony for 610 housing units for the civil servants at Atimbo, in Akpabuyo Local Government Council, just a little distance from Calabar.

Promoted as the Cross River Property Investment Limited (CROSPIL) civil/public servants housing programme, an initial investment sum of N1 billion would be spent on the first phase of the project by the real estate developers.

He said that with the return of civil servants to the National Housing Fund, they would now have an opportunity to access funding to purchase their houses and that under the Akpabuyo housing scheme which will be executed through PPP, government intends to provide land, infrastructure and equity while its partners will build the houses for sale at between N3 million and N4.5 million.

Already, officials say, the state has spent N600 million on construction of access roads within the area and hopes to spend an additional N580 million on the provision of internal road networks in the housing estate as a considerable amount will be spent on provision of water and electricity.

The owners, they said, would not be allowed to sell them but will be required to hold their houses as assets for a long time.

The governor enumerated that 49 plots had been allocated for those displaced during the acquisition of land and that the Atimbo Community would be provided with electricity, water and improved security network to facilitate development of a conducive habitat.

The governor recalled that in 2002, the state government had an estimated 43,171 housing units in Calabar and with a growth rate of five per cent or 2,300 units per annum, there would be an accumulated short fall of 9,000 by 2010 in Calabar alone, thereby resulting in an increase in house rents and prices of homes.

He explained that in order to tackle the short fall in the housing situation in the state, the Department of Mortgage Finance was inaugurated in 2007 with specific mandate to coordinate housing programmes for Cross Riverians at affordable cost.

Imoke also disclosed that government was developing a new master plan for Calabar and other major towns in the state.

One of the partners in the project, Future View Mortgages, represented by its Group Managing Director Elizabeth Ebi, said that the houses, comprising 64 units of one-bedroom terraced bungalows, 206 units of two-bedroom semi-detached houses and 67 units of three-bedroom semi detached bungalows are part of government's efforts towards alleviating the housing problems being experienced by civil servants in the state.

-Guardian Newspapers