Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa has affirmed that the progress so far recorded under the Renewed Hope Cities and Estate programme alongside the housing units delivered by the agencies of the Ministry, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and Federal Housing Authority, shows that the Ministry is clearly on course to meet close to an annual target of 2000 housing units.
Dangiwa made this affirmation during the engagement with the Special Assistant to the President on Policy and Coordination and Head of Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit (CRDCU), Hadiza Bala Usman.
The engagement with CRDCU was on the 1st – 3rd Quarters 2024 Performance Assessment Report on Implementation of Presidential Priorities and Ministerial Deliverable of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development which was presented by Hadiza Bala Usman
Dangiwa appreciated the continuous monitoring from the CRDCU team, saying that it has kept the Ministry at an alert and ready to deal with problems.
“As your team has already seen from our first, second and third quarter reports, we have been focused and working creatively hard as a Ministry to deliver results and impacts”, he noted.
The Minister informed that the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates program currently has 10, 112 housing units ongoing at 14 construction sites nationwide, which includes 3000 housing units in 12 estates at 250 units per state, under the 2023 ₦50bn supplementary budget; and 3,612 units in Karsana Renewed Hope City, aside the 1,500 units in Kano and 20000 units in Lagos State.
He disclosed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, would next week, December 17th and 19th respectively be officiating the groundbreaking of two additional Renewed Hope Cities in Kano and Lagos States, consisting of 2,500 units in Ibeju, Lekki, Lagos and 1 500 units in Kano, saying that the funding was by the FMBN and a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Dangiwa also explained that the Ministry has embraced the PPP arrangement to compliment the insufficiency of funding from the budgetary allocation.
Expressing concerns that the housing problems in the nation requires at least 550,000 housing units annually over the next 10 years to close the deficit, the Minister maintained optimism that the Ministry has achieved a significant progress under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
“The Ministry needs a bigger budgetary allocation for housing units, we have engaged the National Assembly currently and they have expressed willingness to support ₦500bn budget for the Ministry in 2025, we would like the CRDCU to also help us support and push for this course”, he said.
Accordingly, he also informed the CRDCU team that the Ministry is seeking to deepen its urban development interventions, citing the assurance of the executive director of the UN-Habitat during a recent executive board meeting in Nairobi, that every money invested in the National Urban Renewal and Slum Upgrade program could leverage 3 folds through their institution partners.
In his words, “we need a minimum of ₦50bn annually revolving, to drive a sustainable Slum Upgrade and Urban development which is key to Nigeria meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) 2030”.
Similarly. Dangiwa informed that the Ministry’s intervention in slums upgrade includes providing basic services like access roads, drainages, water, among others, to make slum areas more livable.
“We currently have over 100 projects nationwide with close to 60 already completed,” he said.
While appreciating the Ministry’s significant progress since submission of the Q 3 report, he acknowledged some challenges hindering some efforts at the Ministry to include untimely release of budgetary allocation and high cost of building materials.
He further solicited the support of the CRDCU in the area of assuring early release of budgetary allocations; partnerships with the state governments, National Economic Council, the National Assembly and other key stakeholders as well as the review of the Land Use Act.
In her remarks and presentation of the Q1-Q3 2024 Performance Assessment Report, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination and Head of Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit (CRDCU), Hadiza Bala Usman, emphasized the importance of collaboration and data -driven governance, noting that effective data management is essential for validating progress and enhancing performance.
She highlighted the Ministry’s High-Impact Deliverables and Indicators, developed in partnership with the CRDCU, as part of the Performance Bond signed by Ministers in November 2023, mentioning enhancing Infrastructure and Transportation as enablers of growth.
Similarly, the Special Adviser listed the housing ministry’s deliverables which includes; reviewing the Land Use Act in conjunction with the National Assembly and State Governments, facilitation and construction of at least 20,000 affordable housing units annually, and rehabilitating federal secretariats nationwide to improve government infrastructure.
The CRDCU stressed the need for improved data management systems within the ministry, highlighting the critical role of accurate data in tracking project timelines, particularly the recommended one-year gestation period for project completion.
CRDCU also recommended that the office of the Minister in conjunction with the permanent secretary take a more coordinated approach to the project management of the inter ministerial deliverables to enable rigorous approach to weekly project tracking and reporting.
Signed
Salisu Badamasi Haiba
Director Press and Public Relations
