President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has set out for the construction of 3,112 housing units in the Karsana region of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Thursday, marking a major step towards resolving Nigeria’s housing shortfall.
This is the start of a national initiative that will utilise a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that was launched in December 2023 to construct 100,000 dwelling units.
The Federal Ministry of Housing & Urban Development (FMHUD) and a group of companies, including Continental Civil and General Construction Limited and Ceezali Limited, have partnered to create an ambitious first phase of 20,000 housing units across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with 3,112 of those units being built in Karsana.
This historic occasion, chaired by President Tinubu, marks the formal launch of the FMHUD’s “Renewed Hope Cities and Estates” plan, which aims to dramatically increase national housing stock and address the widespread housing shortage.
A minimum of 1,000 dwelling units per City site and a minimum of 500 housing units per Estate site in each of the 30 states are promised by the programme, which calls for the construction of Cities and Estates throughout all six geopolitical zones of the nation including the Federal Capital.
The project is intended to accommodate different income categories, providing a choice of residential options, according to Minister of Housing and Urban Development Ahmed Dangiwa.
These include bedroom blocks of flats for low to middle-income earners, as well as more opulent two to five-bedroom terraces and duplexes for higher-income earners, fostering integrated living communities.
The Karsana project, which was heavily funded by the developers who also purchased the property, exemplifies an innovative approach to house building in Nigeria.
Furthermore, the FMHUD ensures that it will ease access to these properties for future homeowners through the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme, run by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), which will facilitate affordable housing finance alternatives for subscribers.
The statement reads, “The project is the first in a series that the Ministry will be embarking on in the coming weeks. Others are the 2,500 Renewed Hope City housing units at the Ibeju-Lekki Coastal City, Lagos, 500-housing unit Renewed Hope Estate in Kano and 250 housing units in 12 states, two in each geopolitical zone, as Renewed Hope Estates in Ogun, Oyo, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Abia, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Benue, Yobe, Gombe, Katsina and Sokoto.
“At the core of the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme is the cross-subsidy component where 80 per cent of the housing units developed will be sold at commercial rate while 20 per cent will be sold at concessionary rates to low- and medium-income Nigerians who are members of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress. The idea is to deploy profits made from the commercial units as a subsidy for the units reserved for low- and medium-income earners.”
Other available housing options include single-digit, 30-year mortgage loans from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, rent-to-own options that allow beneficiaries to move in and pay for homeownership in monthly, quarterly, or annual instalments, and outright purchases for high-income earners.
The President granted N100 billion for the Ministry in the 2023 Supplementary Budget and N18.9 billion in the 2024 Budget to implement the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates, as well as Urban and Slum Upgrading initiatives.
