The Federal Government says President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is firmly focused on closing Nigeria’s housing deficit and accelerating broad-based economic growth.
The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, made this known at the 8th Affordable Housing Finance and Investment Summit 2025, on Tuesday in Abuja.
The theme of the summit was ‘Innovative Financing of Affordable Housing Under the Renewed Hope Agenda’.
Dangiwa, represented by the Director of Public Buildings and Housing Development, Pemi Temitope, said the administration was pursuing a comprehensive strategy to expand affordable housing, stimulate job creation, and boost local industries tied to construction.
He added that the Federal Government had activated a N250billion intervention fund to further address the housing deficit.
The minister said, “Our housing deficit remains colossal, estimated in tens of millions of units and the bottlenecks are well known; such as the high cost of building materials, accessibility to funds.
“The ministry had taken decisive steps under the renewed housing programme targeting 50,000 units in Phase 1.
“We are in 15 locations nationwide and we have over 10,000 units under construction.”
Dangiwa reiterated government’s position that housing was not a luxury, adding, “it is a fundamental human right and a foundational enabler of national development.
“The government is no longer seeing housing as a cost, but as an economic engine especially to the teaming public servants.
“To address the high cost of building materials, a major hurdle to affordability, the ministry plans to establish Building Materials Manufacturing Hubs in each of the six geo-political zones.
“This is a key initiative to reduce costs and break supply-chain bottlenecks.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, reiterated that in a major move to tackle the nation’s housing crisis, the Federal Government had activated a N250billion intervention fund.
Represented by the Director of Home Finance, Alhaji Ali Mohammed, the minister said, “Recently, a N250bn intervention programme was floated for developers to get access to funds for the development of housing in Nigeria.
“We urge developers to key into the programme to reduce the housing deficit in Nigeria.
“The Ministry of Finance is really committed in providing financial assistance to reduce the housing deficit in Nigeria.”
Edun also revealed parallel efforts to boost housing ownership from the demand side, stating the Federal Government Staff Housing Loan Board under the Head of Service of the Federation was being restructured.
He explained that the threshold of accessing such loans had been increased so that the civil servants could own houses for themselves.
In his goodwill message, the former Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, linked the success of such projects to broader national stability.
He said, “When people talk about security, they think about physical security which is important but the biggest security is human security, food security, housing security, environmental security, generally speaking, economic security.”
Gambari, therefore, called for collective efforts in addressing extant Nigeria’s formidable housing challenges.
Earlier, the Convener of the summit, Dr Yemi Adelakun, said that past government schemes had largely failed to make a significant impact.
Adelakun called on the stakeholders to collaborate to deliver what he termed “Tinubu houses” to the ordinary Nigerians on a revolving basis.
He highlighted that successful housing projects had multiplier effects, creating jobs and catalysing economic development.
NAN
