The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, has promised to expand the state\u2019s transportation infrastructure and introduce long-term mortgage arrangements to make housing more affordable for residents.\n<\/p>\n
Hamzat made the pledge during the Lagos Governorship Debate on Sunday, while responding to a question on why residents continued to experience economic hardship despite the state\u2019s enormous wealth.\n<\/p>\n
He acknowledged the financial difficulties facing Nigerians, citing the rising prices of essential commodities and petrol, but argued that the state government could intervene in key sectors to ease the burden.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Nigeria is undergoing a corrective session financially, things are a little bit tough for people. Long-grain rice, for example, is N66,000, and petrol is N1,600. That\u2019s high, but the levers that the state government can control are housing, agriculture and transportation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On transportation, Hamzat said his administration would prioritise an integrated network of road, rail and water transport to facilitate the movement of large numbers of commuters across the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we have a plan to complete the Blue Line up to Agbado and the Red Line to link it up. We have already shown you the development of the terminal, which we normally call our Trade Fair terminal. It is to move people en masse,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
He added that Lagos, being a water-bound state, needed to maximise its waterways as part of efforts to improve public transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLagos is a water state, and therefore we must turn the lagoon into a waterway. The idea is to build rail, road and water transportation so that they are all connected and move people en masse,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
The Lagos State deputy governor also said the state\u2019s transportation plan included the provision of 34,000 new compressed natural gas-powered buses to improve mass transit.\n<\/p>\n
On housing, Hamzat said Lagos had recorded the development of 24 housing estates comprising 18,000 housing units in the last eight years.\n<\/p>\n
He said his administration would introduce mortgage arrangements requiring prospective homeowners to make a 10 per cent initial payment and spread the balance over 25 years.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOur plan is to make sure that we don\u2019t buy houses the way we buy yam and rice. That is to make sure that we have mortgages with a 10 per cent down payment and a 25-year payment plan, so that people can pay over time,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Hamzat added that the arrangement would complement ongoing housing projects across the state, which he said would be completed to provide more accommodation for residents.\n<\/p>\n
He cited ongoing developments, including the Ibeshe Housing Estate, which he said had 2,700 units, alongside other housing schemes.<\/p>\n
According to him, the mortgage system would address the difficulty many residents face in raising the huge sums required to purchase houses outright.\n<\/p>\n
He argued that spreading payments over an extended period would make homeownership more accessible to Lagosians.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, has promised to expand the state\u2019s transportation infrastructure and introduce long-term mortgage arrangements to make housing more affordable for… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}