Dangiwa: Ministry on Track to Meeting 20,000 Annual Housing Delivery Target

•Bala Usman advocates data-driven governance model

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, has affirmed  that the ministry is on course to meeting its annual target of 20,000 housing units nationwide.

Dangiwa spoke during an engagement with the Special Assistant to the President on Policy and Coordination and Head of Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit (CRDCU), Hadiza Bala Usman.

The engagement with the unit bordered on the 1st to 3rd Quarters 2024 Performance Assessment Report on Implementation of Presidential Priorities and Ministerial Deliverable of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Dangiwa appreciated the continuous monitoring from the CRDCU team, saying that it has kept the ministry on the alert and ready to deal with problems, a statement in Abuja by the Director of Press and Public Relations in the ministry, Salisu Haiba, said yesterday.

The  minister said that the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme currently has 10, 112 housing units ongoing at 14 construction sites nationwide, which include 3000 housing units in 12 estates at 250 units per state, under the 2023 N50 billion supplementary budget.

He also listed  3,612 units in Karsana Renewed Hope City, aside the 1,500 units in Kano and 2000 units in Lagos State.

Dangiwa disclosed that President Bola  Tinubu would next week be officiating at the groundbreaking of two additional Renewed Hope Cities in Kano and Lagos States, consisting of 2,500 units in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos and 1,500 units in Kano.

He  said that the funding was by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, explaining that the ministry had embraced the PPP arrangement to complement the insufficiency of funding from the budgetary allocation.

He maintained that the housing problems in the nation requires at least 550,000 housing units annually over the next 10 years to close the deficit, stressing that the ministry has achieved a significant progress under the current administration.

“The ministry needs a bigger budgetary allocation for housing units. We have engaged the National Assembly and they have expressed willingness to support N500 billion budget for the ministry in 2025. We would like the CRDCU to also help us support and push for this course,” he said.

He informed the CRDCU team that the ministry was seeking to deepen its urban development interventions, citing the assurance of the executive director of the UN-Habitat during a recent executive board meeting in Nairobi, that every money invested in the National Urban Renewal and Slum Upgrade programme could leverage three folds through their institution partners.

“We need a minimum of N50 billion annually revolving, to drive a sustainable Slum Upgrade and Urban development which is key to Nigeria meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) 2030,” he added.

Similarly, Dangiwa informed that the ministry’s intervention in slums upgrade includes providing basic services like access roads, drainages, water, among others, to make slum areas more liveable.

“We currently have over 100 projects nationwide with close to 60 already completed,” he said.

He acknowledged some challenges hindering some efforts at the ministry to include untimely release of budgetary allocation and high cost of building materials and solicited the support of the unit in assuring early release of budgetary allocations.

In her remarks, Bala Usman, emphasised the importance of collaboration and data-driven governance, noting that effective data management was essential for validating progress and enhancing performance.

She highlighted the ministry’s high-impact deliverables and indicators, developed in partnership with the CRDCU, as part of the performance bond signed by ministers in November 2023, mentioning enhancing infrastructure and transportation as enablers of growth.

She listed the housing ministry’s deliverables which includes; reviewing the Land Use Act in conjunction with the National Assembly and state governments, facilitation and construction of at least 20,000 affordable housing units annually, and rehabilitating  federal secretariats nationwide to improve government infrastructure.

The CRDCU chief stressed the need for improved data management systems within the ministry, highlighting the critical role of accurate data in tracking project timelines, particularly the recommended one-year gestation period for project completion.

She also recommended that the office of the minister in conjunction with the permanent secretary should take a more coordinated approach to the project management of the inter-ministerial deliverables to enable rigorous tracking and reporting.