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THE Borno State government has awarded contracts for the construction of 1,000 additional housing units to meet the states housing and accommodation problems.

The housing contracts are being awarded at a total cost of N8.8 billion. The contractors have also been already paid their 25 per cent or N1.7 billion mobilisation fees to commence work on the houses located southeast of Maiduguri International Airport.

Awarding the contracts at the Musa Usman Secretariat complex, Maiduguri, Alhaji Zanna Mallam Gana, who is the Borno State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, disclosed that the award of contracts for the houses was to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people on shelter and housing accommodation in the state.

He said that during the electioneering campaigns of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff in March last year, people at the grassroots demanded for more new houses that would address their shelter and housing problems.

This, he said, prompted the State Executive Council (SEC) to approve the construction of the 1,000 additional housing units at the Jos/Kano Road estate site. He said that each housing unit would be built by a single contractor, adding that the contractors had named a minimum of three guarantors before they were awarded the housing project contracts.

The houses, which are categorised into four, are to be completed between eight weeks and 20 weeks or five months. According to the commissioner, the two-bedroom houses make up the lions share of 682 units, while the four, three and one-bedroom houses comprise 96 and 111 each.

Other facilities to be provided on the 85-hectre site are a school and its playground, shopping complex and a police post.

Besides, he told The Guardian that before the houses are allocated, the 85-hectre estate would be provided with a concrete fence wall to protect lives and property.