Minister urges states to support national homeownership campaign
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s built environment have renewed calls for sweeping land administration reforms, aggressive urban renewal and the large-scale use of local building materials as critical pathways to addressing the country’s housing deficit and building sustainable cities.
These resolutions were at the heart of deliberations at the 14th Meeting of the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development held in Kwara State. The meeting, themed “Achieving Housing Delivery and Sustainable Cities Through Effective Land Management, Urban Renewal, Promotion of Local Building Materials, and Public-Private Partnerships in Nigeria,” followed technical sessions of directors, stakeholders and permanent secretaries.
The council meeting brought together key actors in the housing and urban development sector from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to harmonise policies and adopt measures aimed at improving land management, promoting inclusive urban renewal, scaling up the use of indigenous building technologies and leveraging public-private partnerships (PPPs) to expand housing supply and financing.
They include the House of Representatives Committee on Urban Development and Regional Planning; the Minister and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development; permanent secretaries; commissioners from 23 states responsible for lands and housing; heads of federal housing institutions; representatives of MDAs; and professional and regulatory bodies in the built environment. Out of 98 memoranda submitted by stakeholders, 62 were deemed suitable for council deliberations, while 36 were stepped down.
Among its major resolutions, the council noted ongoing efforts by the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to develop a National Policy on Rural Settlement Planning and Development, including a 15-month roadmap for consultations, validation and approval. It also endorsed the adoption of digital land management systems, blockchain-enabled titling, smart urban planning tools and web-based housing fraud reporting mechanisms to enhance transparency and investor confidence.
The council welcomed plans to establish Building Materials Manufacturing Hubs in at least one state per geopolitical zone, prioritising states that provide between 150 and 300 hectares of land for the initiative. It also reaffirmed the legal backing of the National Public Building Maintenance Order, 2022, and approved nationwide implementation of maintenance compliance forms across MDAs.
Far-reaching resolutions were adopted on urban renewal, climate-smart housing and safety standards, including the use of local building materials in government-funded mass housing, domestication of health and safety regulations on construction sites, integration of fire safety and maintenance planning into housing projects, and the adoption of the fire loss calculator as a national assessment tool.
The council also pushed for expanded PPP frameworks, fiscal incentives for developers using high local content, green grants, innovative mortgage products for Nigerians in the diaspora, and stronger intergovernmental collaboration on land titling under the National Land Titling, Registration and Documentation Programme.
In addition, the council approved the establishment of a joint team involving professional bodies, research institutes and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to develop a National Compendium of Standardised Local Building Components, and endorsed the institutionalisation of facility management as a core pillar of sustainable housing delivery.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, has urged state governments, housing institutions, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and other stakeholders to actively support and participate in the National Homeownership and Housing Development Campaign as part of efforts to scale up housing delivery across the country.
Dangiwa made the call at the 14th National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development, where he described the campaign as a demonstration of the Federal Government’s resolve to drive a unified and coordinated approach to subnational housing development.
According to him, the initiative is designed to ensure that federal housing programmes, reforms, financing opportunities and private capital translate into “real, visible and deliverable projects at the state level,” through closer collaboration with state governments.
The campaign, organised by Know This Nigeria Network (KTNN) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, seeks to link federal housing reforms, policies and interventions with state-level implementation. It will feature regional executive sessions and public homeownership seminars aimed at strengthening partnerships among federal housing institutions, DFIs and state governments.
Dangiwa noted that the initiative aligns with the ministry’s newly introduced Unified Housing Delivery Framework, which is intended to deepen federal–state collaboration in delivering housing at scale and building sustainable cities nationwide.
“Our new direction is to ensure that the Ministry and all Federal Housing Institutions function as one government, delivering results that directly support state and local implementation efforts,” he said.
“This is to ensure that we operate not in silos, but as one coherent national housing delivery system working in direct support of state-level delivery.”
Also speaking, National Coordinator of the campaign, Muhammed Adamu, said the initiative would help strengthen the capacity of states to attract, absorb and deploy housing capital more effectively.
He explained that a key innovation of the campaign is the encouragement of states to establish State Housing Reform Offices (SHROs), which would provide expert advisory and technical support within state governments to enable them convert opportunities into bankable and deliverable housing projects.
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