The federal government has declared a nationwide broader strategy to reduce Nigeria’s housing deficit.

The minister of housing and urban development, Ahmed Dangiwa, made this known while inaugurating the FHA Express View Estate 1 and FHA Complex in Lugbe, Abuja, on Tuesday.

Represented by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Shuaib Belgore, he said the newly commissioned estate was among several housing projects being delivered under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

He said, “This event is not just about cutting a ribbon. It is about showing Nigerians that progress is possible.

“The Renewed Hope Agenda is real, and through institutions like the FHA, we are bringing that vision to life.

“Mr president made housing a priority under Renewed Hope to close the housing gap, grow our cities in an orderly way, and make sure that every Nigerian, whatever their status, can have a safe place to call home.”

According to Mr Dangiwa, the ministry of housing and urban development has the job of driving this vision, setting policies, creating partnerships, and strengthening institutions and one of the strongest tools for delivery is the FHA.

He explained that there were a series of renewed hope housing projects across the country, including the renewed hope cities project to deliver over 3,000 houses in major cities in Nigeria.

He added that the renewed hope estates span 13 states across the country, in addition to the ongoing social housing project, which aims to deliver 77400 houses — 100 houses in each of Nigeria’s 774 local governments.

The minister called for stronger partnerships between FHA, FMBN, developers, mortgage institutions, cooperatives, pension funds, and the private sector to change the story of housing in Nigeria.

Chairman, House committee on housing and habitat, Abdulmumin Jibrin, said there was a need to pump in more money into the housing sector, adding that capacity, human resources and land were available.

“One of the fundamental problems of the housing sector in Nigeria is that we have a situation where the houses are chasing the money.

”We need to change the dynamics to a situation where the money will be chasing the houses,” he said.

Mr Jibrin noted that sometimes there were houses but the capacity to purchase would not be there and called for the need to strengthen FMBN to address the mortgage challenge.

The managing director and chief executive of FHA, Oyetunde Ojo, said the FHA Management hinged its agenda on the Renewed Hope mantra embedded in the provision of affordable and livable houses to Nigerians.

Mr Ojo said that to achieve it, the Authority visited 28 states and was given lands in all.

He said: “While the Authority has commenced the process of constructing our Renewed Hope Estates in 17 states of the country in the phase, we also decided to deliver this housing project, which we are commissioning today.

“The Express View Estate we are commissioning today is the first phase, and comprises about 50 units of terraces and flats.

“On full completion, the entire project is expected to add about 110 housing units to the national housing stock. It is a partnership project that started in 2021 between the Federal Housing Authority and BAM Properties.”

Mr Ojo further explained that FHA was working to complete other inherited projects, with some slated for commissioning in the coming weeks.

“Let me use this opportunity to tell Nigerians that our Management is not only desirous of giving our people affordable and livable estates, we are building a new FHA where our allottees will be secured and our services faster and seamless.

“To achieve this, we initiated the digitalisation of the Authority’s property files, which are now secured in the Galaxy backbone. We are working for the full automation of all other aspects of the Authority’s operations.

“Our laboratory has become operational, where we carry out geological and integrity tests,” he said.

Also speaking, the managing director, chief executive of Federal Mortgage Bank (FMBN), Shehu Osidi, stressed the need to empower government institutions to do more.

He said, “In Nigeria, we have houses we do not need and we need houses we do not have. Why is this?

“It is because there are a lot of houses that are not affordable to the low- and medium-income earners.

“Which is the reason why institutions like the FHA and FMBN exist. We finance houses for the low- and medium-income earners.”

He added, “Our partnership within the context of the Renewed Home Agenda is that we have provided a bankable optical guarantee.

“So that when these houses are built, Nigerians can apply for mortgages through FMBN to own these houses and then pay gradually over time”.

(NAN)