Reforming Nigeria’s Housing Sector for Optimal Delivery
With eye on the ball, the new Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mr Ahmed Dangiwa, appears to be on the right path to fixing Nigeria’s massive housing deficit, writes Emmanuel Addeh.
There’s no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria has a humongous housing deficit challenge. The problem is even more accentuated, given the inequitable distribution of shelter among people who own them and those who really need them.
Given this background, it is therefore trite to say that solving the nation’s housing challenge or better still, Nigeria’s urban housing problem requires a systematic, organised and methodical approach.
With a new minister now firmly in charge of the ministry, which was recently excised from the works and housing ministry, Nigerians are hopeful that they will soon begin to see significant progress in terms of their access to quality and affordable housing.
Not a rookie in the sector, Ahmed Dangiwa, an architect and former Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), was appointed in August 2023 by President Bola Tinubu to oversee the very critical sector.
Indeed, the housing sector is so important that its major endpoint, which is the provision of shelter, is regarded as a basic need for survival, alongside food, water and air.
So relevant is the housing sector to the growth of nations that in advanced economies like the US, UK and Canada, the sector contributes more than 30 per cent to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In Nigeria, it’s a meagre 0.38 per cent to GDP.
In addition, the sector has the potential to generate employment, boost productivity, elevate living standards, and alleviate poverty as well as curb crime. In the first few weeks of assumption of office, Dangiwa already set out his plan on how to revive the sector.
It’s expected that having laid the groundwork, the minister will now move full throttle to the implementation stage in his plan to turn around the very critical sector.
100,000 Housing Units Deal
In 2023, the ministry under Dangiwa, closed the year with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a consortium to deliver 100,000 affordable housing units across the nation.
The agreement with the consortium of private sector-led companies was headed by Continental Civil and General Construction Company Limited and Ceezali Limited.
The units are to be delivered in two phases, starting with 20,000 units in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) followed by 80,000 units across the six geopolitical zones.
In his remarks, Dangiwa noted: “Under the terms of this partnership, the consortium will be the ones to provide construction finance and build the housing units to completion based on agreed housing designs and prices.
“The federal ministry of housing and urban development, on its side, will facilitate provision of affordable mortgage loans to off-takers through the FMBN, as well as facilitate the approval and grant of all legal titles in select lands for the projects.”
The minister further touched on the job creation component of the project, noting that it is in line with the vision of the president to raise 100 million Nigerians out of poverty. Notably, he said the public/ private arrangement will create 2.5 million direct and indirect jobs at 25 jobs per housing unit.
Horde of Reform Teams
To help accelerate the planned reforms in the housing sector, the minister will this week inaugurate a rash of committees or more appropriately reform teams.
The teams include: The Housing Reform Task Team, with the primary objective of ensuring that housing agencies under the supervision of the ministry are optimised to deliver on the provision of quality, decent and affordable homes to Nigerians.
The team comprises housing industry sector experts, stakeholders, agency representatives, professional bodies, and academia. Their primary mandate is to develop a robust framework for the reform of the housing sector.
This includes a thorough review and facilitation of necessary legislative amendments of relevant housing industry laws, including National Housing Fund (NHF) Act,1992, FMBN Establishment Act, 1993, Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Act,1973, and PenCom Act (to allow for increased investment in housing).
In addition, the Multi-Agency Project Delivery Task Team will ensure that all housing agencies under the supervision of the ministry work collaboratively.
Its scope of work includes developing a comprehensive strategy and roadmap for the construction of 20,000 new houses per year.
It will coordinate efforts of the ministry, FMBN, FHA and Family Homes Funds Limited (FHFL), to streamline processes and eliminate bottlenecks in housing development so as to increase the national housing stock.
Another team set for inauguration is the Land Reforms Task Team, which is meant to develop a blueprint that will aid sustainable implementation of reforms necessary for streamlining land administration and ensuring easy, cost effective and efficient access to land in Nigeria.
It comprises state governments, traditional rulers, relevant agencies, professional bodies, academia, stakeholders/sector experts to ensure buy-in and inclusivity.
Also set for inauguration is the Building Materials Manufacturing Hubs Task Team, which will boost building materials manufacturing in the country towards ensuring economic growth, creating jobs, reducing dependency on imports, and lowering the cost of construction materials and housing delivery.
Primarily, their job is to conduct a thorough assessment of the current state of the building materials manufacturing sector in Nigeria, including existing facilities, capacities, and key players. They are to also identify challenges and opportunities within the sector.
Consultants have also been appointed to provide technical support for each of the teams to ensure speedy access to needed resources, efficient harnessing and synthesis of deliberations, structured reporting, and timely delivery of stated terms of reference. The teams will have eight weeks to deliver.
Renewed Hope Cities, Estates
The first phase of the New City Development Plan aims to deliver “Renewed Hope Cities” ranging from 1,000 housing units per site in one location in each of the six geo-political zones of the country and FCT namely: Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Borno, Nasarawa, Rivers, and Enugu States, while the remaining 30 states will have “Renewed Hope Estates” each with a minimum of 500 housing units.
With inclusivity at their core, they will include multi-level flats to cater to low-medium income earners; terrace and detached bungalows and duplexes for the high-income earners. The renewed hope estates will have one to three-bedroom affordable bungalows.
“ Overall, we aim to deliver under this phase 1, a total of 40,000 homes from a mix of sponsors comprising the federal ministry of housing and Urban development’s budgetary allocation, FMBN, and through public private partnerships with reputable developers in the delivery of the new cities.
“Ownership options include mortgage loans, rent-to-own and outright purchase. At 25 jobs per unit, the first phase of the project will create direct and indirect 1,000,000 jobs helping to achieve the target to lift 1million Nigerians out of poverty,” Dangiwa said recently at the 50th anniversary of the FHA.
According to the ministry, the FHA has a major role to play in its ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ for housing and urban development.
“ So, getting FHA to fulfil its mandate is a priority to us. We will encourage the authority to operate optimally. We will drive the process for the release of the take- off grant proposed for the authority prior to its partial commercialisation,” Dangiwa stated.
Slum Upgrading Programme
Under the Phase 1 of the Slum Upgrading Programme, the ministry plans a total of 26 sites nationwide. This includes four sites in each of the six regions of the country totalling 24 and two in the FCT.
The key services to be provided at the identified sites will include water supply, solar street lights, rehabilitation of access roads, construction of drainages as well as waste management and sanitation services, amongst others.
“Our aim under the slum upgrading programme is to improve the living conditions of residents of the identified slum project sites by making them liveable and habitable,” the minister added.
He explained that the N50 billion also released for the project in the supplementary budget was only part of broad financing plan that will involve a blend of budgetary allocations, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), housing construction finance from the federal housing agencies including the FMBN and FHA.
“The provision of the N100 billion in the 2023 supplementary budget gives us the leverage to kick-start phase one of our nationwide renewed hope housing projects and slum upgrading programme before year end,” he said.
Curtailing Building Collapses
To curb the menace of building collapses, the minister said that his office will work with all stakeholders to ensure an end to the problem in the country.
Dangiwa, who spoke when he received members of the Nigeria Institute of Architects (NIA) in his office, therefore sought the cooperation of all the professionals in the sector to proffer the needed solutions.
Promising that the ministry would look into the national challenge, he explained that with the collective inputs of the professionals in the built environment and state commissioners of housing, the ministry will come up with policies on how to curtail the menace.
Reducing Housing Gap
The minister revealed that his ministry was working with the National Population Commission (NPC) to establish the actual housing deficit, explaining that an in-house estimate showed that 550, 000 new homes are needed to be built per annum over the next 10 years to meet the housing needs of Nigerians, describing it a massive size of housing challenge
In a forum with immigration officers, Dangiwa further revealed that the federal government planned to build Renewed Hope Cities nationwide with the first phase delivering 34,500 homes in selected cities and state capitals across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
Ending Abandoned Projects Syndrome
He has also read the riot act to some contractors handling housing projects nationwide to expedite work, noting that henceforth there will be no more abandoned buildings in construction sites across Nigeria.
Speaking when he toured some project sites in Abuja, he noted that the capacity of companies currently handling government projects in the housing will also be reviewed.
Dangiwa maintained that the government would no longer tolerate cases of abandoned housing projects in the country when several millions of Nigerians were in need of shelter.
Unoccupied Buildings Problem
Dangiwa has also hinted that the federal government may take tough decisions to curb the problem of massive unoccupied buildings in Abuja, especially those that have been uninhabited for over three months.
Speaking when he toured several government housing construction sites in Abuja and Niger, he disclosed that henceforth, those who insist on neither living in nor giving out their houses may have their ground rents tripled.
Dangiwa, on the sidelines of a two-day tour of housing sites, argued that when the ground rent of the several houses and estates in Abuja is tripled, owners would be compelled to give them out to tenants.
Upholding Fiscal Accountability
The ministry has also fully committed to ensuring fiscal accountability in its operations.
Dangiwa told the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) that the ministry of housing and its agencies will ensure transparency in the financial governance in the ministry, in line with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The Minister stated this when he received the Chairman of FRC, Victor Muruako, and his team on a visit to the ministry.
“Every decision that we make, every resource that we allocate, carries the weight of public trust and expectation. Therefore, instilling fiscal responsibility is indeed an ethical imperative and a commitment to transparent and accountable governance,” he said.
