The Chairman, Senate Committee on Land, Housing and Urban Development, Sen. Bukar Ibrahim, has called on Kuwait to assist Nigeria to solve its housing challenges.

Ibrahim made the call when the first Kuwaiti Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Sa'ad Al-Asousi, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja on Thursday.

He said that the visit was timely because Kuwait was contributing development assistance to many countries through the work of the Kuwait Fund, which is financed by the Kuwaiti Government.

He noted that Nigeria's partnership with the Kuwait Fund would be beneficial to the development of sustainable housing projects in the country.

"The Kuwaiti Fund is doing a lot all over the world in developing countries assisting them with housing, urban development and land matters. They are also doing a lot of good things for Nigeria.

"They are small and don't have housing problem at all. We are a large country with a huge population. We need assistance in the field of housing.

"We need partnership with the Kuwaiti Fund and other development agencies in Kuwait to assist in solving some of our housing problems.

Ibrahim advised the Kuwaiti Ambassador to visit the FCT Minister and his Land, Housing and Urban Development counterpart to find out specific housing programmes that would benefit Nigerians.

Earlier, Al-Asousi said his country was committed to strengthening relations with Nigeria, hence the deployment of the first substantive ambassador to the country.

The ambassador said that the visit was also to gather useful knowledge that would help Kuwait achieve success in the ongoing reform of its electoral system.

"The Emir has taken the decision to amend the Electoral Act which gave every voter the right of one vote instead of four votes.

"Studies within the last three years have revealed that the former Electoral Act has defects that threaten national unity and development," he said. NAN