Nigeria: Group Honours House Builder in Abuja
Founder of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI, as well as the Fuller Centre for Housing, the late Millard Fuller, was last Tuesday remembered in Abuja by a group called the Fuller Centre Nigeria.
The Fuller Centre Nigeria displayed pictures of the deceased humanitarian covering his days as a child to when he became a missionary working across the continents of the world.
The late Fuller, who while on earth worked towards helping the poor get decent accommodation for themselves, died 3rd February 2009. He was aged 74.
Speaking at the two-day exhibition, chairman of the board of the Fuller Centre Nigeria, Archbishop Josiah Idowu Fearon, said the late Fuller rose from a humble beginning in Alaba, the US and through a ministry in housing, he built many modest houses and gave them out on no-profit basis, thereby making homes affordable to families with low incomes.
He said homeowner families were made to invest their labour into construction of their homes so money for building went into a revolving fund, enabling the building of even more homes.
The archbishop explained that the late Fuller came to Africa in 1973 to test his housing model.
Having succeeded in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Fearon said, “Fuller became convinced the model could be expanded and applied all over the world.”
According to him, the project has found its foot in Nigeria with the construction of 50 housing units in Masaka, Nasarawa State.
He said a unit is sold for N480,000. All one needs do to own Fuller’s house in Masaka is to pick a form, fill it and pay initial deposit of N80,000. The rest is spread over five years.
Sam Odia who is National Director of the Fuller Centre Nigeria stated that 50 houses have been completed and given out so far.
He however lamented that bottlenecks and high cost of land in the urban areas stand as barrier to the efforts to provide many affordable houses for the poor.
He pleaded with authorities to donate land to the centre like it is done in other countries so more homes could be built.
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