From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Federal Government, at the weekend, announced that it would build over 30 million new homes in the next 10 years as part of efforts to bridge the housing deficit in the country.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr Madu Hamman, who announced this at the World Habitat Day anniversary, in Abuja, said that to this end, the bank intends to play a far more active role in integrating the informal sector into the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme.
This, he noted, would widen the door of opportunity to over 85 per cent of Nigerian population that is currently neglected or ignored.
“The project is at the point of completion to successfully deliver about 1000 housing units. The bank will leverage on this experience to build up capacity to a minimum of 5000-unit projects as a strategy to bridging the housing supply gap in line with the President Tinubu administration’s target of 30 million new homes over the next 10 years”he further explained.
Earlier, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Architect Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, had expressed concern over the rate of rural-urban migration, saying that it now accounts for more than 50 per cent Nigeria’s population. He feared that by 2030 it’s likely to increase to 60 per cent.
“It’s our duty therefore, to make adequate urban planning and management and building the needed resilience and innovations to absorb the expected shocks.
“As the world builds and consolidates the foundation of the New Urban Agenda, urgent steps are required to rectify past imperfections by recognising fully that development is an evolutionary assignment that cannot be entirely resolved by one agency acting alone. We envisage an urban future where economic growth and prosperity proceed with equity; one where human exploitation of the natural environment is carried on sustainably; and one where poverty and inequality are attenuated by strong human centred policies,” he said.
He observed that inefficient urbanisation resulting from lack of sustainable development financing can result in diseconomies of scale and negative externalities.
This, the Minister observed, will further exacerbate issues that contribute towards decelerating progress of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as poverty, climate change and pollution.
To this end, Dangiwa called for private sector investments in the sector by leveraging on the government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement already in place to mobilise financing for affordable housing and urban development.
“We already welcome international development partners and other stakeholders collaboration in this regard” he said.
In the same vein, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Senator Gbenga Ashafa told the government to build new cities and regenerate new ones to curtail urban migration.
“Through this, not only will we provide houses to our people, we will also deliver more liveable and secure environment to them,” he said.