• Education, housing sectors fractured, limping
• Health in intensive care • Bandits tighten noose on solid minerals up North, give Marshalls headache in mining hotspots
By Fred Ezeh, Isaac Anumihe, Charity Nwakaudu and Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
In the run up to the 2023 presidential election, the antecedents of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in governance, especially when he was the governor of Lagos State, were given a lot of hype in the media.
Then, the public was inundated with fabulous reports of how he deftly and prudently managed the resources of the Centre of Excellence even when statutory allocations to local governments in the state were seized by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo-led Federal Government.
So, when Tinubu declared during the 2023 electioneering that he would hit the ground running from day one on May 29, 2023 to deliver on the promises encapsulated in his Renewed Hope Agenda, no one raised any doubt.
But one year after, many Nigerians are now gnashing their teeth with most of them regretting their support for the president.
In this report, we present some of the sectoral reviews in the last one year.
Statistical reports
Today, inflation, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stands at 33.69 per cent.
When compared on a year-on-year basis, the inflation rate in April 2024 was 11.47 per cent higher than that of April 2023, that stood at 22.22 per cent.
This indicates that the headline inflation rate has risen significantly over the past year. Again, Nigeria’s unemployment rate surged to 5.0 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 from 4.2 per cent in the previous quarter, the latest Labour Force Survey of the NBS revealed in February.
Many businesses have collapsed just as the country has suffered a worrisome exodus of leading multinational companies, which led to over N50 trillion loss in investments.
Another major challenge that has terribly hurt the economy under Tinubu is the blooming insurgency, which has stalled oil production and dislocated the agriculture sector, leading to worrisome food insecurity and widening poverty. As at November 2022, 63 per cent of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) were declared multi-dimensionally poor.
Experts believe the figure has swelled exponentially since the present administration came onboard, judging from the worsening inflation as the economy succumbs to stringent economic policy administration.
Assessing Tinubu’s one-year administration, Dr Muda Yusuf, director general, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), said that the Tinubu administration has done a lot to be able to ensure that the fundamentals of the economy are corrected, pointing out that the administration inherited a lot of challenges around the macro-economic environment. “There were issues about outstanding foreign exchange transactions. There were issues around huge debts. There were issues around our foreign reserves. And then the fact our foreign reserves have been encumbered.
“In other words, there were a lot of forwards that had compromised our foreign reserve. So, that created a lot of problems. Then we had a lot of issues around our deficits, around our ways and means finances, which was close to N30 trillion.
“Then all the distortions that were created in the foreign exchange market was a very big issue. Then there was a huge challenge with the fuel subsidy. And all the financial challenges it created. So, for most part, the first year of the administration was about correcting all these disruptions and dislocations that had happened in the economy, which was all the reforms that the administration had been taking steps to undertake.
“But the reforms, obviously, have created a lot of challenges. It led to high costs, high inflation, and the shock on the citizens was quite significant. But my view is that the government has very, very little choice of options available to be able to ensure that the economy does not completely go down.
“So, those reforms were necessary, but of course, they were painful. So, that is where we are. The Central Bank of Nigeria is doing its best to be able to stabilise the exchange rates, but again, it is a lot of work, because there are already a lot of holes that have been created. The policies are in the right direction, generally. Although they were painful.
“But they are in the right direction. Well, inflation is still high. Some of the consequences of the reforms also led to inflation. For instance, the exchange rate depreciation, fuel inflation, the fuel subsidy removal led to high energy costs, and also fuel inflation. So, these are consequences of some of these fundamental reforms.
“What I think the administration needs to do more is to cushion the effects of some of these reforms to reduce the pains that have been inflicted both on businesses and the citizens,” he suggested.
For the former Director General, Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Chijioke Ekechukwu, the indicators like GDP growth, employment or unemployment, inflation rate, foreign exchange rate and foreign reserves are looking up in some areas and bad in others.
“If we take each of them, one after the other, and then put into position what the economy looked like around this time last year, before he took over, then we could say that indicators are looking better in some areas and bad in some other areas.
“Inflation rate is so high today and cannot still come down even with the tightening of the system. The MPC met and they tightened the economy more by increasing the monetary policy rates. Yet, I insist that it is not right to continue to use monetary policy rates to save inflation because there are many other drivers of inflation, which should be taken care of. One of these factors is insecurity,” he said.
Education
One of the globally accepted indices for measuring the level of development of a nation is education. But Nigeria has been regressing in this vital area. The downward trend, driven by multifarious factors, including poverty and deleterious cultural practices in some parts of the country, has continued to reflect in the increasing population of out-of-school children. It is these children, who are left uncared for, that often grow up to become delinquent adolescents and criminal adults that constitute a menace to society.
Even more worrisome is the crass and manifest evidence of failure of governance seen in the reckless allocation of resources utilised in less than optimal ways.
In the education sector, not much was achieved in tthelpastone year President Tinubu’s administration took the reins of governance. Apparently, the Education Minister, Prof Tahir Mamman and his team spent a longer time on the learning curve despite the fact that he came from the university system.
It was more of promises: ‘we will do this and we will do that,’ and policy announcements with poor iimplementatin in the nearly one year of Prof Mamman superintending the Federal Ministry of Education.
But there are exceptions of one or two political promises made during the elections that were or about to be fulfilled.
The Minister, a former vice chancellor, was expected to hit the ground running by bringing or sourcing realistic innovations that would herald quick transformation of the education sector. Sadly, some observers said that they are disappointed with what they have seen so far.
However, there are hopes that steps being taken by the minister and his team would soon begin to herald some significant changes and progress for the sector in the shortest time.
However, being a critical sector for national development, stakeholders had expected much from the president, perhaps, through the minister of Education, even when some of them also made several suggestions on the way forward for the sector.
The minister, alongside the Minister of State, Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu, kicked-off their time in office by, first, admitting the fact that there were myriad of challenges that needed urgent attention to fix, stressing that the identified challenges had, over the years, militated against the growth and development of the sector, promising to fix them as soon as they could.
The minister similarly observed the urgent need for a new roadmap that would guide the activities of the sector, at least, for the next few years.
In furtherance of that purpose, an eight-man committee, led by Dr Nuru Yakubu, was constituted to undertake the task.
Few weeks after, a new roadmap for the education sector was developed and it is being implemented, though with little changes as the need arises.
The minister, from all indications, seems to be using the old approach of administration to run the affairs of the education sector.
Sadly, he’s expecting a different result, and that might be the reason for the slow pace of development in the sector and the sense of disappointments being expressed by the stakeholders.
Undoubtedly, the minister inherited several challenges from his predecessor, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who served as minister of Education for eight years (2015-2023) under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
But they are not insurmountable if the right policies and programmes are developed and implemented, many have observed.
Top on the list of the challenges remain the issue of high number of out-of-school children, incessant industrial actions by the labour unions in tertiary institutions, access and equity to education, degree mills, research and innovation, as well as the government-industry-academic nexus. There’s also the global competitiveness of the education system.
Sadly, there are no strong signs indicating that the minister will proffer formidable solutions to the identified issues particularly the out-of-school children which his predecessor couldn’t solve.
Recently, a new body, National Commission for Almajiri Education and Out-Of-School Children, was established to, perhaps, help the government in that regards.
But without the commitment of the state governments, not much would be achieved as regards the great national embarrassment which the huge number of out-of-school children represents for the country, and the other issues contained in the new roadmap for education.
The reason is that education, particularly basic education, is on the Concurrent Legislative List. This means that state governments have a critical role to play. Hence the minister requires a realistic approach to achieve the desire.
Some stakeholders believe that the minister and his team are still preparing the ground for the major transformation expected in the sector.
However, they challenged him to hasten the implementation of his plans for quick results or they would mobilize for his sack.
There’s high optimism that the 2024 National Council on Education (NCE) will provide opportunity for review of activities and policies implemented so far with a view to making amendments where necessary.
It’s expected that the Council will critically deliberate on the recent suggestion by the minister that 18 years be pegged as entry age into tertiary institutions.
Achievements made
Amid what seems like slow pace of actions in the sector, some landmark steps have been taken by President Tinubu through the ministry in the past few months, to promote academic stability in the tertiary institutions, welfare and opportunities for students.
The Students Loan Scheme Act recently signed into law has brought much hope to Nigerian students particularly those from the poor or average family background, who might find it nearly difficult to acquire tertiary education due to the high school fees.
This may, perhaps, be a precursor for full financial autonomy for the public universities.
Also the minister has been able to secure industrial peace and harmony in the tertiary education system. Though a graveyard peace, but some steps have been taken by the president to appease the aggrieved members of the university-based unions.
Late last year, President Tinubu directed that tertiary institutions be removed from the contentious Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) payment platform which has been one of ASUU’s demands for many years. Sadly, that directive has not been implemented. This is in addition to several months of their salary not being paid.
Through the strong interventions of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the ministry has also promoted improved access to ICT infrastructure in the tertiary institutions, thus “arming” students with necessary toolkits, information and capacity to compete in the academic global space.
National President, Nigeria Youth Union (NYU), Comrade Chinonso Obasi, in his assessment of the sector said: “It is convincing to say that the status quo in the education system is still the same. You have unhealthy halls of residence in public institutions and sex-for-grades is still rampant, poor emoluments for lecturers, extortion, and obnoxious increase of charges in the tertiary institutions are still the order of the day in our education sector.”
Comrade Obasi, a former president of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) believes that President Tinubu should as a matter of urgency, hold an engagement with the state governors and strongly nudge them to unconditionally provide the counterpart funding to access the UBEC funds lying fallow.
“The promise made by the president through the minister of Education to grant financial autonomy to Federal Government institutions and the enactment of the Nigerian Students Loan are also indicators of the president’s willingness to move the educational sector forward. But beyond this, the president should declare an intentional state of emergency in the education sector to address its decaying state.”
Health
In the health sector, stakeholders, local and international partners, are obviously impressed with the choice of Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, and Dr Tunji Alausa, as minister of Health and minister of State for Health, respectively, describing them as round pegs in round holes.
They said the duo are people who are experienced in the health sector having served in different capacities in the sector.
Prof Pate previously served as the minister of State for Health, and had also served in different capacities at the global level.
The acceptance of the ministers by the stakeholders, perhaps, resulted in the huge support and commitment to the cause of changing the narrative in the health sector.
Also, health, being an item in the Concurrent Legislative List requires that state governments develop and implement policies and interventions that are unique to them to ensure collective improvement in the health care services.
Notwithstanding, some giant steps have been taken to improve the health indices of Nigerians, perhaps, through the collective effort of stakeholders, though the majority of the achievements are not tangible for many Nigerians to see.
The ministers started their time in office by developing and unveiling a four-point agenda which, they said, are strategic in guiding the interventions in the health sector, at least, for the next few years.
The four-point agenda is focused on improved healthcare governance; population health outcomes; unlocking healthcare value chain; and health security for all Nigerians, adding that the target was to adequately increase human resource for health.
The journey so far
Shortly after the four-point agenda was made public, the ministers announced that a new document, Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII), was being developed, which would expectedly herald improved health care financing, and also strengthen the chances of achieving the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) target.
The document was designed to drive the investment opportunities for the health sector, ensuring that all stakeholders, including the state government are involved in the healthcare financing in Nigeria.
Dr Pate had confirmed that there was the need for a different window of opportunity to source for domestic funds to finance the healthcare services in Nigeria, particularly at the primary healthcare level, hence the development of the compact with great input from the state governments and development partners.
President Tinubu, alongside state governments, stakeholders, local and international partners launched the pact in Abuja, as part of events to mark the 2023 UHC Day with the theme; “Health for All: Time for Action”.
As an item in the Concurrent List, the National Council on Health (NCH) which comprises states Commissioner for Health deliberated and approved the sectorwide approach in line with the National Health Act of 2014 which approved the creation of Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) and other systems to help improve the health care services.
The implementation of the revised BHCPF led to improved PHC services across the country.
Currently, 8,000 Primary Health Care (PHC) centres are enlisted in the BHCPF, but there are plans to expand the beneficiary PHCs to 17,000 PHCs in the shortest time to enable more Nigerians enjoy quality health care services at the PHC level.
Another success in the health sector in the last one year was the introduction of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine after several failed efforts. There are indications that Malaria and TB vaccines would soon be introduced into the routine immunization system in the country.
Additionally, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) sustained the momentum on immunization services particularly on zero dose communities who were largely responsible for the recent outbreak of diphtheria.
The ministry also succeeded in identifying the zero dose communities and reached out to them with the necessary vaccines in order to protect the safe communities.
There was also the industrial peace and harmony that has been witnessed in the health sector over the period, perhaps, due to some “unseen” steps taken by the ministry to keep the peace.
Minister of State for Health, Dr Tunji Alausa, in one of his interviews said: “We have created some stability in the sector in the last one year. We did some house cleaning to ensure our parastatals, agencies and federal institutions are better equipped, managed and run.
“Regarding the rise in the cost of pharmaceuticals and medical consumables, we have developed an Executive Order that’s awaiting presidential assent to change that narrative. This will shape the pharmaceutical market, create room for local manufacturing which will in turn help to reduce the price of pharmaceutical products and other consumables, and further unlock our healthcare value chain.
“We are also working on a holistic package for our healthcare workers, especially those that are yet to graduate and enrol into university. This package will ensure they are well trained, compensated and fulfilled in their roles.
“That being said, I am very aware that a lot more needs to be done, but we are on the right path. We are not building a healthcare system for one person, we are building a sustainable system for over 200 million Nigerians because they deserve the best healthcare services, and we are working tirelessly to ensure you receive it.”
Challenges
Despite the “perceived successes”, the healthcare sector, undoubtedly, is still faced with several challenges which have made health care services a nightmare for most Nigerians.
Brain drain (Japa syndrome) is one of the key challenges of the health sector. Health Care seekers are experiencing tough times because of shortage of manpower in different specialities in the public healthcare facilities.
This has forced patients to spend longer time in the hospital to get medical attention, thus adding to their frustrations.
In addition to that, the health care system is still being faced with the challenge of data. Accuracy of data is another challenge being faced in the health care system. The Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) is outdated, hence the need for urgent review.
The 2018 NDHS is the sixth demographic and health survey conducted in Nigeria, following those implemented in 1990, 1999, 2003, 2008, and 2013. There’s need for a new NDHS survey that will provide a clearer view of the state of health care sector in the country.
Managing epidemics is another challenge being faced in the health sector. The recent outbreak of Diphtheria, Lassa fever and other epidemics in some states is an indication that NPHCDA is overwhelmed.
Similarly, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is being overwhelmed by the increasing number and frequency of epidemic outbreaks. That has become a threat to the health of the public.
The country’s system is also faced with challenges of health financing, human resources, quality PHC services, public health emergency preparedness, inadequate health infrastructure, among several others.
Nevertheless, there has been optimism among stakeholders and repeated reassurances from the ministers that the bad situation would change for the better in no distant time.
Stakeholders speaks
Former President of Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr Kenneth Ozoilo, in his submission said that President Tinubu’s choice of Prof Pate as minister of Health inspired confidence, given the latter’s pedigree.
“Sadly, the last one year has been a period of policy pronouncements. It is, however, extremely difficult to point to any concrete achievements of the ministry and the Tinubu administration in the health sector beyond policy pronouncements and promises,” Dr Ozoilo said.
He said that the efforts to improve the pay package of workers generally, including health workers, is commendable but falls far short of what is needed to address the issues therein.
“The massive haemorrhage of Nigerian health workers (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc) has not only continued unchecked but has also assumed alarming proportions in recent times.
“The directive to relevant Councils to jack up the number of intake of students into training institutions is a knee jerk response at best, and it is counter-intuitive. There has been no effort to expand the infrastructure to teach these new numbers, neither has there been massive increase in the employment of instructors. The laboratories have been the same, the classrooms are the same. The existing structures are overstretched and poorly run at the moment. But even if all these were put in place, it would take a minimum of six years to feel the effect.
“That is why the interview granted by Minister of State, Health, Dr Tunji Alausa, on Channels Television on Tuesday 7th May, 2024, was nothing short of scandalous. The minister shamelessly told Nigerians that all the ills of the Nigerian health system met by Tinubu had been corrected. That’s not true, neither was it correct. He boldly stated that the sector is not in crisis, manpower challenge had been corrected by an improved intake of trainees into nursing and medical schools, and medical tourism had been reversed! Nothing could be further from the truth.
“This bare-faced lying is very discouraging and not indicative of a government that has the true desire to solve problems. You must acknowledge problems in order to be in a position to begin to look for their solutions.
“It is bad enough that the administration has no concrete achievements to cite one year on, but its attitude to this state of affairs is the true disaster that is evolving before our very eyes,” he said.
Mines and solid minerals
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake on assuming office in August last year, launched a seven-point agenda to tackle the hydra-headed challenges bedeviling the sector with an efficient governance structure that will not only attract more investors, but captivate the interest of international big players.
The creation of the Nigeria Solid Minerals Corporation, which topped the seven-point agenda, is still at the planning stage. Conceptualised to be a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the mining sector, the new corporation will be driven by the private sector with a proposed 50 per cent equity reserved for a consortium of private sector players; 25 per cent for the Federal Government and 25 per cent for members of the public.
The ministry is collaborating with the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals to secure the amendment of the 2007 Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act (NMMA), which would give provisions of the corporation’s new statute legal strength.
In order to tackle the issue of insecurity, which is one of the major challenges of the sector, Alake formally launched the “Mines Marshall” from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The Mines Marshall which comprises 2,220 carefully selected operatives, and specially trained by the military, the NSCDC has a command structure of an initial 60 operatives deployed in each of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, and is under the operational control of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.
The Mines marshal is the first layer of the security apparati that will be deployed to secure mining sites.
Asides from the infusion of technology into the operations of the new outfit and the potential addition of more operatives from sister agencies like the Nigeria Police, there are other levels of security operations that will rout entrenched economic saboteurs and illegal miners.
Data generation has received the attention of the minister, as a raft of partnerships through the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) to unlock the requisite financing for generating big data on the minister’s eight priority minerals (gold, baryte, iron-ore, lead/zinc, coal, limestone, bitumen and lithium) and their deposits are being actualised.
One of such is the MoU signed with the German firm, GeoScan GmbN, late last year, for the deployment of cutting-edge proprietary technology that will be able to carry out exploration up to 10,000m below the surface of the earth.
The SMDF is also collaborating with the African Finance Corporation (AFC), among other innovative ways the ministry is devising to unlock the needed capital for exploration of critical minerals.
This is crucial to attract international big players as the generated big data will guide them in making informed decisions about investing in the mining sector value chain.
In order to free up space for more serious minded and genuine investors in the sector, Alake revoked 2,557 licences due to default in payment of annual service fees.
He went further to give restitutions for the leases, N10 million was for imposed; Smal-Scale Mining License (SSML), N7.5 million; Exploration License (EL), N5 million while Quarrying license has a N2.5 million penalty fee.
As part of efforts to make the mining sector more competitive, in line with regional and global best practices, the minister pledged to revise rates of mining licenses soon.
Artisanal miners were given a 30-day ultimatum on Alake’s assumption of office to form themselves into artisanal cooperatives.
This has since yielded fruits as about 152 cooperatives and counting, have been formed till date, which not only enables government to formalise their operations, but also track due royalties and taxes to the federation.
The minister, last year, launched the revised guidelines for Community Development Agreements (CDA) which aims to ensure host communities derive maximum benefits from the operations of mining companies while due royalties accruable to government are secured for economic development.
Similarly, two committees, one ministerial and the other technical, were inaugurated to develop a blueprint to enable Nigeria effectively harness its estimated 42 billion barrels of Bitumen deposits.
Already, investors that won the first round of Bitumen blocks bids are set to get to work. Eighteen were granted bitumen exploration licenses, while16 won mining licenses, respectively.
On the international scene, the progress being made and the renewed vigour in projecting the sector since the advent of the President Tinubu administration has not gone unnoticed.
Just recently, on the sidelines of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Alake was unanimously elected the pioneer chairman of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG).
The AMSG, a body of African Ministers of Solid Minerals/Mineral Resources, has taken up the gauntlet as the prime mover of the continent’s new bargaining chip – value addition as against the age-long practice of mere extraction or carting away of unprocessed solid minerals.
Consummating his role at the “Invest in African Mining Indaba”, Cape Town, South Africa, Alake rallied his colleagues behind putting in place concrete policies and legislations in member countries to make value addition mandatory for prospective investors.
Other aspects of the seven-point agenda like creation of six mineral processing centres to focus on Value Added Products and Joint Ventures with Mining Multinationals is a work in progress.
Few days ago, the minister unveiled the Nigerian Minerals Resource Decision Support System, DSS, aimed at helping investors make informed decisions in the sector.
The DSS is a comprehensive software platform that serves as a one-stop shop for investors seeking credible and decisive information on Nigeria’s mineral resources, facilities and infrastructure.
Housing and Urban Development
When the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Architect Ahmed Musa Dangiwa assumed office on August 22, 2023, he vowed to streamline the various figures of housing deficits being bandied around by stakeholders and non-stakeholders.
He promised to collaborate with the National Population Commission (NPC) to take a head count of houses in the country from which he would know the number of houses in Nigeria.
The minister also set up a team to take stock of all empty estates across the country with a view to increasing their ground rent from single to triple rent.
The increase, according to him, will make owners of empty houses to either sell them at affordable prices or rent them out at friendly prices.
“For years, our nation has grappled with conflicting and unsubstantiated figures regarding this deficit crisis. The range of estimates, varying from 17 million to 28 million, has not only been a source of embarrassment, but also a hindrance to effective policymaking and strategic planning.
“We plan to fix this national embarrassment by developing and implementing a mechanism to deliver reliable housing data to guide policy formulation. We have begun a strategic collaboration with the National Population Commission (NPC) on housing data. The plan is to work with the commission to design and implement survey instruments specifically tailored to address housing-related questions to arrive at the actual housing deficit during their upcoming population and housing census exercise.
“We understand clearly that the housing deficit is not solely about the quantity of structures, but also about the quality of living conditions. So, we want to know whether the homes that Nigerians live in provide access to good sanitation, proper toilets, sufficient living spaces, a healthy environment, and other essential amenities. We have written to Mr. President and we are hopeful that with his approval for the conduct of the census, we should fix this problem and put an end to this national embarrassment.
“To ensure that housing agencies under the supervision of the ministry are optimised to deliver on the target of providing affordable homes to Nigerians, we have composed a Housing Reform Team of experts, stakeholders, agency representatives, professional bodies and academia to develop a robust framework for reform of the housing sector, including thorough review of relevant laws and facilitation of necessary legislative amendments
“There are lots of abandoned estates, especially in Abuja and the vicinity. I think, in some other states, we do have a few of them. We want to take stock of all those abandoned houses. Then, we interface with the owners of the abandoned houses. We’ll ask them what do you want? Do you want to keep these houses? If you want to keep them unoccupied the government will charge you triple ground rent instead of the single ground rent that we charge. That will force them to put it on rent for whatever amount or sell them off because you can’t keep saying that we have housing deficit when we have a lot of empty houses that are being completed and left unoccupied. So, we have told the Department of Lands and Urban and Regional Planning in our ministry to take stock of those estates and give us the names of the proprietors so that the owners of those estates will be informed of our plans. Any estate that stayed more than three months unoccupied we’ll start charging them triple ground rent. That’s what we intend to do,” he said.
Unfortunately, one year into the life of this administration, the built industry is still grappling with various figures of housing deficit and the collaboration with NPC seems to be a mirage not only because of the suspension of the planned head count, but also because of the huge financial investment in the implementation of the project.
However, President Tinubu, through the instrumentality of the minister, approved a N126 billion for Renewed Hope Cities nationwide to deliver a total of 100,000 houses nationwide in 18 months.
To this effect, the president on February 7, 2024, flagged off 3,112 housing units in Karsana, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The Karsana project is expected to be delivered in December this year.
Just like the National Housing Programme (NHP) of President Muhammadu Buhari administration, it would be done through direct sales or through mortgage. However, it’s not certain how much each unit will sell.
Dangiwa said that the project is the pilot under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and a consortium of developers comprising Continental Civil and General Construction and Ceezali Limited signed in December 2023.
“Under this PPP arrangement, the ministry is creating the enabling environment and facilitating off takers for the houses through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) while the developers will source land and finance the construction. By encouraging these PPP arrangements, we are taking the financial burden off government while meeting our citizens’ needs for decent and quality shelter.
“We chose to start in the Federal Capital Territory because it is the heart of the nation. We are also impressed that the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, is committed to the Renewed Hope Agenda and understands the importance of housing and access roads to residents and is taking steps to improve infrastructure in the FCT,” he said
According to him, this year, the Federal Government would undertake a groundbreaking of a total of 6,000 housing units.
“This includes 2,500 Renewed Hope City housing units at the Ibeju-Lekki Coastal City, Lagos; the development of a 500-housing unit Renewed Hope Estate in Kano and 250 housing units in 12 states (two per geopolitical zone) as Renewed Hope Estates. This amounts to 6,000 housing units under the 2023 Supplementary Budget.
“From the ministry’s 2024 approved budget, we are also rolling out another batch of Renewed Hope Estates comprising 250-housing units each in six additional states totalling 1,500 housing units,” he said.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that most states did not buy into the project as they are yet to provide land for it.
So far, only Nasarawa State and FCT have allocated land for the project.
Early this month, Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr Abdullahi Sule, handed over 24.62 hectares of land for the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Project.
Presenting the documents to Dangiwa, Sule maintained that the gesture was to show the commitment of the state to the efforts of the ministry towards providing affordable housing to Nigerians.