Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Wednesday said more than 12,387 Nigerians applied for the federal government national housing programme across the country.

Mr Fashola disclosed this at the official handing over of keys to beneficiaries of the housing programme in Osogbo.

Represented by Nuru Adeoye, the Osun controller of the Ministry of Works, the minister said that out of the application received, the ministry had approved 694 applications.

“We have offered all these housing units to members of the public in a non-discriminatory way,” Mr Fashola said.

He said the estate comprises 76 units of one-bedroom, two-bedrooms and three-bedrooms.

The minister said four beneficiaries in Osun had fully paid for the houses of their choice within the estate.

He said allocations would be made based on a first come, first-served basis.

In his remarks, the permanent secretary in the ministry, Bashir Alkali, said the housing scheme had engaged more than 1,500 building contractors under phases I, II and III of the programme since its inception in 2016.

Represented by Danbaba Yahaya, chief town planning officer in the ministry, Mr Alkali said that more than 15,000 and 55,000 direct and indirect jobs were also created, respectively.

He said since the construction of more than 6,000 housing units started in 45 sites, 2,665 units had been completed in 35 states and the FCT.

(NAN)