The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu has announced the Federal government readiness to build one million renewed hope shelters for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugees across Nigeria.
This Project according to the minister is in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to providing dignified shelters for the poor, internally displaced Persons and Refugees in the country.
The Minister made this known during an inspection of prototype shelters of two sample houses (one bedroom & two bedroom) at Idu Industrial layout, Abuja.
She opined that both samples were built by the local people in that community for themselves, using local materials in ten days and very cost effective,the same that will applicable across Nigeria.
She said the Government wants to achieve the project in a record time ,because lots of IDPs exist in different parts of Nigeria and they need a befitting shelter they can call their homes.
Dr. Edu said “what is also interesting about the project is the fact that we want to introduce the solar energy to it so that the shelters are not dependent on the National Grid, but they can use the solar energy to provide at least the basics such as light, charging their phones and do their basic ironing and whatever they need to do with light in the locality”.
The Minister further stated that Mr. President directed that the shelters be built by the local community to provide them with skills and economic empowerment.
” The project is not a contract or to be build by a contractor. The local community will be given the dignity of building the house they will live in. They will see it as their project, they will own it and they will not vandalise or destroy it”.
“To ensure quality control, the construction of the houses will be supervised by professional architects, engineers and support from the Federal Ministry of Works”
Dr. Edu said that the shelters will be built in Benue, Borno, Zamfara, Yobe,Cross River,Ebonyi and other states that have large numbers of IDPs, Refugees and extremely poor Nigerians.
According to her, the ground braking ceremony of the houses was done in Benue State where the building of forty shelters were flagged off.
She also disclosed that the Federal Executive Council has approved the Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund. The Federal government will contribute 30 percent to the fund and the remaining 70 percent will be contributed by the Private Sectors, Donor Agencies, Development Partners, Philanthropists, Individuals, amongst others.
