LAGOS, JUNE 17 – Stakeholders and subscribers to Pen Jewel Estate, Mowe, Ogun, a project for female journalists in Lagos, have reached an agreement for its commencement.
The project is the brain child of Mrs Ifeyinwa Omowole, the National President, Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), to provide affordable mass housing for journalists in the country.
The pilot scheme, which began in Lagos in 2014, has the Lagos chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), who supplied the land, as partners.
At a rowdy interactive session at NUJ secretariat in Ikeja on Friday, subscribers said the NUJ and NAWOJ took critical decisions behind them.
Some of the issues included changing the investors, reduction of the sizes of plots to provide facilities within the estate and opening a naira account without involving subscribers.
But Omowole said NAWOJ sourced for local developers because delay in payments by subscribers led to loss of opportunity for foreign investors to handle the project.
The NAWOJ President said that the association was still exploring opportunities of using financiers who have counterpart funding for women to make the housing units cheaper.
She said N70.6 million was currently in the naira account and 1.99 million dollars in the domiciliary account but decried high bank charges on the funds.
“We have been talking to some financiers to shore up the cost and allow NAWOJ pay 40 per cent while they take 60 per cent which will be spread over 10 years”, Omowole said.
Chairman of NUJ in Lagos State, Mr Deji Elumoye, said the meeting was called to “holistically discuss all the issues regarding the project.”
Elumoye assured those who wished to opt out of the project that they could get their money and land back.
“The first set of houses will be delivered by December. The project is going to have insurance and there will be central water system. We have a proper layout.’’
He said 800 plots had been mapped out for construction of the first set of houses which will be built in batches of 200.
According to him, those who did not subscribe to the project but whose land fall within that earmarked for the project would be relocated to the remaining 1,200 plots.
Mr Bayo Tijani, a presenter with Lagos Television, advised NAWOJ and NUJ to seek ways of involving Federal Government in the project.
Mr Korede Ogunbunmi, member of staff of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), moved a motion for signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was seconded by Mrs Anthonia Osilaja of the Federal Ministry Information.
3 bedroom apartment with good road network and other facilities is being proposed for the estate to be built at a cost of N5 million and the payment spread over a period of 10 years.
