The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, has revealed that President Bola Tinubu’s government is funding 12 Renewed Hope Estates through the N50 billion allocation in the 2023 supplementary budget.
Mr Dangiwa said this at the 2024 Property and Environment Writers Association (PEWAN) conference in Lagos.
According to the minister, the ministry has been allocated an additional N27.2 billion in the 2024 budget to fully complete the infrastructure while awaiting the 2025 budget to expand the programme to cover more states.
He explained that the ministry adopted various creative and diversified funding strategies to create an impact under Mr Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda.
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He noted that these include increased budgetary allocation, public-private partnerships, international collaboration, leveraging ministry-agency contributions, and launching the National Social Housing Fund.
He disclosed that the three ‘Renewed Hope Cities’ in Abuja, Lagos, and Kano were all being funded through a PPP that the ministry signed with a consortium of developers for the delivery of 100,000 housing units nationwide.
Mr Dangiwa explained that under this strategy, the developers source land and construction finance while the government creates an enabling environment for them to deliver housing.
He said the ministry facilitated a N100 billion “bankable off-taker guarantee” by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria for the Karsana Renewed Hope City, enabling developers “to mobilise over N40 billion in financing—a first in the history of Nigeria’s housing sector.”
The minister disclosed that a substantial percentage will be sold at concessionary rates to low- and medium-income Nigerians who are members of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.
According to him, the ministry embraced PPPs because the nation’s vast housing deficit cannot be funded by budgetary allocation alone. The minister confirmed that the country needed to build approximately 550,000 units annually over the next decade to close this gap, and this would require about N5.5 trillion per annum.
According to him, there is widespread recognition that the current N50 billion annual budget for housing is grossly inadequate compared to the N5.5 trillion required annually to address the housing deficit.
Dangiwa said that, to this end, the ministry had engaged the National Assembly leadership and received their support for increasing the annual housing budget to a minimum of N500 billion, starting with the 2025 budget cycle.
He expressed hope that this would allow the ministry to expand housing projects to cover the remaining 18 states and increase the unit count per state from 250 to at least 500, as initially planned.
The minister acknowledged that funds put into housing construction are revolving because the houses will be sold and the money put back into government coffers for subsequent housing construction.
He noted that beyond this, housing construction plays a huge role in job creation and poverty alleviation, adding that this huge economic impact must be put into proper context.
(NAN)
