The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Arc. Ahmed Dangiwa, in this interview on the sidelines of midterm progress report of the housing sector underscores the relevance of the private sector in delivering affordable housing to Nigerians under the Renewed Hope Housing Scheme. He also addressed concerns on the high cost of building materials, among others.
What is the role of Public-Private-Partnerships in delivering affordable housing to Nigerians?
The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model is one of the most critical enablers of the Renewed Hope Housing Programme. From the very beginning, the president made it clear that addressing Nigeria’s housing deficit cannot be achieved by the government alone. The scale of the challenge is too vast, and public resources are too limited. That’s why we have embraced a PPP approach that brings in private capital, technical expertise, and market efficiency—while government provides policy support, land, and infrastructure.
And I’m pleased to say that the model is working exceptionally well in practice.
So far, through the Renewed Hope Housing Programme, we have successfully mobilised over N70 billion in private sector investments from developers, financiers, and institutional investors. These funds are already being deployed to finance the construction of thousands of homes in key locations across the country.
For instance, the Renewed Hope Cities in Karsana, Abuja; Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos; and Kano are being delivered under well-structured PPP arrangements. In each case, the role of the private sector is to design, fund, and construct the housing units to agreed standards and timelines, supply building materials, labour, and technical expertise. They also serve as offtake guarantees to ensure that once homes are built, there are buyers—particularly through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).
What’s the implementation plan and target beneficiaries for the Renewed Hope Social Housing Programme?
The Renewed Hope Social Housing Programme is the heart of our pro-poor housing strategy. It is specifically designed to ensure that no Nigerian is left behind, especially those who traditionally have no access to formal housing markets—low-income earners, informal sector workers, and the most vulnerable members of society.
The goal is bold but simple: to deliver 77,400 affordable homes, with 100 housing units in each of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas. This is the most decentralised and inclusive housing programme ever launched in Nigeria. It brings housing directly to the grassroots, ensuring that people in rural and peri-urban communities—where housing interventions are often absent—benefit from the Renewed Hope Agenda.
This programme targets artisans, market women, okada riders, mechanics, petty traders, and others in the informal sector who earn daily or weekly incomes.
Others include persons living with disabilities, internally displaced persons (IDPs), widows, and other vulnerable groups who often face housing discrimination.
Young Nigerians, especially those returning to rural communities under agriculture or entrepreneurship programmes, who need affordable places to live and grow and civil servants in rural posts like teachers, healthcare workers, and agricultural extension officers who have difficulty finding decent shelter close to their duty stations.
This is expected to create over 2 million direct and indirect jobs, deepen skills in the construction sector, and support the establishment of small and medium construction firms nationwide.
Nigeria land registration, titling is one of the biggest challenges of the housing sector. What is the ministry doing to address this?
I agree that today, one of the biggest challenges we face in Nigeria is that over 96% of land remains untitled and undocumented. This means millions of Nigerians live or do business on land that is not legally recognised. Without title documents like Certificates of Occupancy (CofO), they cannot access credit, secure their investments, or even transfer their land to their children with legal certainty. That’s what economists call “dead capital”—assets that exist but cannot be used to create wealth.
The Nigeria Land Registration, Documentation, and Titling Programme (NLRDTP) is one of the most important structural reforms we are undertaking under the Renewed Hope Agenda—because land is the foundation of housing, agriculture, infrastructure, investment, and national development.
The NLRDTP is designed to change that. It is a bold, systemic, and far-reaching reform aimed at working with state governments in a non-intrusive manner that respects their ownership and power of land in their various states towards digitising and modernising land records across all 36 states and the FCT.
It is also harmonising land titling procedures to eliminate duplication, reduce processing time, and curb corruption, while building a National Land Information Dashboard that provides real-time data on land availability, ownership, and use across the country.
The impact will unlock over $300 billion in dead capital, giving Nigerians, especially small landowners and informal entrepreneurs, the ability to use their land assets to access finance and grow their businesses. It will also reduce land disputes, improve investor confidence, and provide a more efficient and transparent land market.
What is the progress so far under the first phase of the Renewed Hope Housing Programme?
We have made significant progress under Phase One of the Renewed Hope Housing Programme.
In less than two years since we rolled out the programme, we have commenced the construction of over 10,000 housing units across 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory. This level of delivery is unprecedented in recent history. In fact, we have already delivered more housing units in this short period than what was achieved in the previous eight years combined under similar government initiatives. The last administration under the National Housing Programme over eight years completed about 3,500 units only that we had to even sell when we came onboard.
We have 3,112-unit Renewed Hope City in Karsana, Abuja, designed as a smart, self-sustaining urban community with green infrastructure, commercial spaces, and amenities as well a 2,000-unit Renewed Hope City in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, strategically located within a corridor of major infrastructure projects like the Dangote Refinery and Lekki Deep Sea Port.
Similarly, we also have a 1,500-unit Renewed Hope City in Kano, and an additional 500-unit estate in the state to meet rising urban housing demand.
In addition, there are 250-unit Renewed Hope Estates in twelve other states including Osun, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Sokoto, Gombe, Yobe, Oyo, Benue, Ebonyi, Katsina, and Nasarawa.
In addition to housing construction, we have also implemented over 150 slum upgrading and urban renewal projects across the six geo-political zones under the National Urban Renewal and Slum Upgrade Programme (NURSUP).
What are some of the plans of the government for the housing sector going forward?
One of our plans is to support local building materials production. As part of our housing industrialisation agenda, we are setting the stage for the creation of Building Materials Manufacturing Hubs in each geopolitical zone. These hubs will reduce reliance on imports, lower construction costs, create jobs, and drive industrial growth in the housing value chain.
Also, Nigerians should expect enhanced Access to Affordable Housing Finance. We are working with institutions like the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Family Homes Funds, and other financial sector players to scale up access to single-digit mortgages, non-interest housing finance, and rent-to-own among other lined-up policies.
