Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has launched an affordable housing initiative aimed at providing 1,000 units for artisans, market women, and other low-income earners in the state.
The project, dubbed Ado Ekiti New Town, is a partnership between the state government and private sector investors, specifically Citec International Estates Limited.
Governor Oyebanji emphasized that his administration prioritizes housing for all, regardless of social status. “Gone are the days when housing programmes of government were the exclusive preserve of the elite alone,” he said. He noted that 100 units will be delivered within the next year, with the entire project expected to redefine standards for affordable housing in the state.
The governor also announced plans to adopt a global housing policy that enables people to become homeowners through inclusive financing based on their income. “We will embrace the global housing policy that will make people become homeowners through an inclusive and convenient financing system based on their incomes,” he stated.
Oyebanji thanked Dr. Oludare Bello, Managing Director of Citec International Estates Limited, for investing in the state. “I give glory to God for a day like this and I am happy that we are all here to do the ground breaking of this Ado Ekiti New Town. What excites me about this project is the preservation of the Ado culture, we are not disrupting the old Ado, and we are building a new city,” he said.
He also encouraged civil servants, artisans, market women, and Ekiti citizens in the diaspora to develop vested interest in acquiring properties in the new town. “Nothing stops the civil servants, drivers, artisans, market women from getting property here. Everybody has a space here and I don’t want us to be intimidated. Like the investor said, let us live in a community that is structured. Where we live is very important, because the opportunities here cannot be found elsewhere,” Oyebanji added.
“I will be one of them by God’s grace, my wife too will be one of them and Kabiyesi the Ewi of Ado Ekiti just announced now that he would subscribe to one unit as well,” Oyebanji said.
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“I just plead with all of us to take position, the structure is flexible, what has been brought to the state is joy, prosperity, development, and job creation. To those people saying Ekiti is not fertile for investment, we shall see, the risk has been taken and I appeal to all other blessed Ekiti indigenes, the time is coming when we will not beg them and they will have to beg us to take a position in this state,” Oyebanji urged.
The Managing Director of Citec International Estates Limited, Dr. Oludare Bello, expressed appreciation to Governor Oyebanji for his rare kind of leadership and for giving him the opportunity to invest in the housing project. “The project of 1,000 housing units in Ado Ekiti was almost impossible except those who could fathom what the future holds for the state,” he noted.
Dr. Bello disclosed that 100 units of the housing scheme would be delivered by October 2025, to mark Governor Oyebanji’s third anniversary. He also revealed that there are nine distinct strata of the project cutting across various classes of society, expected to redefine standards and offer Ekiti residents a wide range of top-quality affordable houses with flexible payment regimes.
“It was my pleasure to replicate what my organization is doing all over the country in Ado Ekiti by bringing people out of their abysmal living condition and deliver to them houses that will redefine their ways of life with the most modern facilities,” Dr. Bello said.
The Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Adeyemo Adejuyigbe, expressed delight at the project and hailed the government for doing it in a manner that does not distort the original structure of the city. “I will also like to occasionally leave the downtown to the new town,” he said, expressing willingness to subscribe to one unit in the project.
“I am happy the Head of Service is here, the SSG is here, I will also talk to the labour union, this is not based on politics, it is based on interest and commitments,” Oyebanji concluded.