The Federal Government has entered into partnership with Shelter Afrique Development (ShafDB) to deliver 5000 housing units as part of effort to provide housing for Nigerians.
Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, made this known while briefing on the achievements of the ministry within one year in office.
“Under the partnership, the Pan-African housing institution will support the Renewed Hope Program with advisory services and financing of competent developers.
“We are looking at about 5,000 housing units in the pilot scheme.
“This will be the first time the ministry is entering into such a practical and direct partnership with a multi-lateral institution for the construction of homes for Nigerians.
“Nigeria is the second largest shareholder in ShafDB after Kenya with over $29 million share subscription,’’ he said.
Dangiwa vowed to explore all possible housing financing options to tackle the massive housing deficit that faced the country.
He recalled that upon assuming office, an action plan was developed in line with the priorities and deliverables of President Bola Tinubu .
The action plan, according to him, was to guide the ministry in implementing reforms and initiatives to increase access to affordable housing and unlock the potential in the housing sector.
“We may not have the financial war chest, but we have to leverage as a government.
For too long, we have failed to maximize our relationships with bilateral and multi-lateral institutions, including those that we have substantial interests.
“We have seen where smaller African countries are taking advantage of these housing development institutions to boost housing for their citizens while we simply watch.
“Within this one year, we have taken steps to change this,” he said.
Dangiwa said over the past one year, substantial progress had been recorded and the ministry was exploring a partnership with the World Bank on land reform, specifically, the implementation of a National Land Titling Programme.
“Through this programme, we aim to partner with State Governments towards improving land formalisation from the less than 10 per cent to 50 per cent, in the next ten years.
“The government, through the Ministry aims to establish a comprehensive, efficient, and accessible land registration system across Nigeria in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said.
Dangiwa said that progress haf been made in fixing issues on the Federal Land Information System (FELIS), adding that the digital system was created to centralise records on federal government land.
He said that substantial progress had also been made in increasing the stock of affordable and decent housing stock for Nigerians.
The minister recalled the groundbreaking for 6,612 housing units across 13 locations nationwide under the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme.
He said, the houses, once completed Nigerians could own them through a broad range of affordable ownership options,like single digit and up to 30-year mortgage loans to be provided by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
Dangiwa said that over the past months, over 47,605 Nigerians both local and abroad had created accounts on the renewed hope housing portal indicating interest in homeownership.
“In fact, over the last two weeks alone, over 250,000 Nigerians have visited the website.
“We received a total of 8,925 Expression of Interest. This comprises 1,294 for Outright Purchase, 2,408 for Mortgage, 2,184 for Rent-To-Own and 3,039 for Instalment payment.
“We have released the 1st batch of Offer of Provisional Allocation Letters for Outright Payment for successful applicants and keys issued to some of them,” he said.
According to him, those who applied to own the homes via mortgage weee currently being processed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).
He said the ministry planned to do groundbreaking for 2, 000 housing unit Renewed Hope Cities in Lagos, and 1,500 housing unit Renewed City in Kano through PPP and FMBN next month.
According to the minister, lands have also been acquired in Enugu and Borno to build a 2,000 housing unit of Renewed Hope City in each location under a PPP arrangement.
Dangiwa said other planned locations for the Cities included, Nasarawa (2,000 units) and Rivers (2000 units).
By Angela Atabo
