Decent housing for the poor

Buea Council embarks on low-cost housing
- Mayor Ekema Patrick seals FCFA 4 billion MoU deal with Canadian real-estate firm
By Ajongakou Santos in Buea

Mayor Ekema & Option for Homes Country Manager
exchange books after sealing the deal

The Buea Council has signed a 4 billion CFA Francs deal with Canadian Housing Company, Option for Homes. According to the Memorandum of Understanding, Option for Homes is expected to construct some 40 low cost houses in the Buea Municipality for the next three years on a 7 hectares piece of land made available by the Buea Council.
    Ekema Patrick Esunge, the mayor of Buea signed the MoU on behalf of the Buea Council, while Henry Neba Awantoh signed for the over 25-year-old Canadian low-cost housing outfit.
    The site for the project is situated adjacent the Buea Central market which is presently under construction at the tune of FCFA 2.5 billion, fruits of South-South corporation.
    While welcoming the officials of Option for Homes into the Buea Municipality, the mayor of Buea, Patrick Ekema Esunge, said his institution is engaging in development strides after that with the Mothercat Limited Company who is charged with building a modern market for Buea. He expressed happiness that Option for Homes has accepted their offer to build modern and low-cost houses for the people of his municipality.
    According to the Lord Mayor, there are lots of benefits in the pipeline from this Buea Council-Option for Homes contract. These include a 1% building permit fee from the 4 billion project that will fetch some 40million CFA Francs to the Buea Council. The Memorandum of Understanding will see the construction of some 40 apartments expected to be handed to the Buea Council whose proceeds will come from the rents, as well as some 60 million that will be trickling in the Buea Council coffers, after the 22- year- land lease to Option for Homes.

    “The council is giving out its capital – land. We know that land is most valuable in any economy. We’re protected because we have a land certificate. That is what attracted our customers more. I’ll assure the public that we sold high. We didn’t sell cheap. If you got the analysis, the council will end up owning two units within the scheme. Each of these units will have twenty apartments. That gives the council forty apartments and will be making two million francs monthly. In the course of signing building permits to the structures we envisage within the ceded land, the council will make 1% of FCFA 4 billion. Worthy of note is the fact that it is a FCFA 4 billion project. If it is four billion, the laws permit us to collect one percent of the total cost from the developer – FCFA 40 million in this case. We have as royalty FCFA 1,000 per apartment. Plus the initial investment cost of FCFA 400 million, you see that the council stands tall.
    Ekema rubbished claims that he signs development agreements to line his wallet. “Like I said, it is not because we want to reap from this giant project, but because we want to leave our footprints on the sands of time and ensure that we safeguard posterity. If you look at the span of the project, it ends in 2019 – after our mandate and we didn’t bother to look into whether we’ll be the ones to receive the project or not. We conceived the project with the knowledge that we are building our municipality and leaving a legacy for younger generations,” Mayor Ekema said disclosed.
    Henry Neba Awantoh- Option for Homes country manager stressed that his company is into housing construction, jobs creation, and improving on the livelihood of the population. For the past 25 years, Option for Homes, a giant real-estate company created in Toronto, Canada has had as mission to create and build decent housing opportunities for the less privileged.