Thirty thousand homes are to be built across the country in the next four years through collaboration between the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and the Customer Centric Contractor of Iran.

The project, for medium and low income earners, would cost about N200 billion to complete, a statement in Abuja yesterday by FHA's Public Relations Officer Tunde Ipinmisho said.

He said though details of the project are still being worked out, a memorandum of understanding spelling out the duties and obligations of each party under the agreement has been signed between the authority and the company.

After signing the agreement, FHA's acting Managing Director Mr. Felix Koyenikan described the move as the authority's biggest effort towards addressing the country's housing challenges.

He said that the 30,000 housing units to be constructed under the agreement represented the total number of houses built by the authority since its establishment.

Koyenikan said the nation's huge housing deficit was a great challenge that the authority was poised to tackle and that the opportunity of partnership with local and off-shore private sector operators provided a platform to fast-track the process of housing delivery.

Also speaking at the ceremony where the pact was signed, Nigeria's ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Alhaji Abubakar Cika, said the MOU was coming under the general bilateral agreement signed between the two countries.

He said similar MOUs had been signed between the two countries covering energy, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas as well as other areas critical to Nigeria's development goals.

Cika said he had done extensive investigation into the skills and capacity of the Iranian firm and had found it competent to meet its obligations under the terms of the MOU. He also promised to explore the possibility of securing funding for the project by Iranian financial institutions.

Managing Director of the Iranian company, Mr. Hassan Yamani, assured that the MOU would pave the way for further investment in Nigeria by other Iranian firms and promised that his company would not disappoint the FHA.