TheCable

 The federal government says its affordable housing schemes will soon transform thousands of Nigerians from being tenants to proud owners of houses and plots of land.

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant on media and publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, said this in a statement in Abuja on Monday.

Shehu said the scheme operated through the mortgage banking system, was part of the programmes meant to uplift the quality of lives of the citizens.

“There are also programmes for affordable housing with mortgages which will transform thousands from tenant status to homeownership,” he said.

He said the Buhari-led administration had so far released N74 billion as part of capital allocations in the last three months.

According to him, more of the capital allocations will soon be released to revitalise the economy.

“Most of our road contractors had not been paid since 2012, many of them had sent their workers away adding to the unemployment problem,” he said.

“This government has released capital allocations in the last three months, that is more than the whole of 2015.

“In 2015, Nigeria spent a paltry N19 billion on roads, in three months we have spent N74 billion and we are already releasing more.”

Shehu added that the government had expended N26 billion in the transport sector, revealing that the government would start a concession that would revive the nation’s rail system for freight.

He expressed the hope that the movement of goods, particularly foodstuff through the rail system would reduce the cost of food items across market places in the country.

“In the transport sector in 2015, government spent just N4.2 billion; we have spent N26 billion with more to follow,” he said.

“We are starting a concession that will revive our old rail system for freight, whilst we build a new high speed rail system.

“Moving heavy goods by rail will reduce our transport costs which will reduce food prices and will save our roads from damage from heavy loads.’’