REMARKS BY THE HON. MINISTER OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, ARC. AHMED MUSA DANGIWA, AT THE ZOOM MEETING WITH HER EXCELLENCY, DR. SANIA A. ANSARI, CHAIRPERSON, ANSARI GROUP LTD, UAE, ON MONDAY JULY 22, 2024

Protocols:

- Your Excellency, Dr. Sania A. Ansari, Chairperson, Ansari Group

- Officials of the Ansari Group

      - Deputy Director, Middle East and Gulf Division,  Amb. Murtala Jimoh.

- The Hon. Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Alh. Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo.

- The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Marcus Ogunbiyi

- Directors, Special Assistants, and other Ministry staff on this Zoom Meeting.

1. First, I would like to thank Her Excellency, Dr. Sania A. Ansari, and her team for setting up this meeting. We were supposed to have held this meeting in person earlier but it could not take place but I am happy that we are here today to engage.
2. I want to assure your Excellency, that at the Ministry we consider partnerships, bi/multilateral collaborations, and private sector engagements as key ingredients to success.
3. This is because we need them to boost our efforts to address Nigeria’s housing and urban challenges, increase access to affordable housing across all income groups, and ensure that the sector maximally contributes to the Renewed Hope Vision of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to build a $1 trillion economy and lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
4. We are keen to partner with Ansari Group because of the wealth of experience, technical and financial capacity that it possesses. We are aware that you have over 25 years of experience in the global financing industry, built relationships with investors and raised billions of dollars across all sectors of the economy, including real estate.
5. We are also aware that you have a partnership with the United Nations Habitat Settlement Programme in its bid to launch the SDG 1,000 Cities by 2030, which aims to impact 1,000 lives at an estimated cost of over $4 trillion. We want to say that this UN initiative aligns perfectly with our own goal to provide sustainable and inclusive urban development across Nigeria.
6. As articulated in the New Urban Agenda, “Cities can be massive agents of positive change if they are well-planned, built, and governed.” They can act as catalysts for inclusion and powerhouses of equitable economic growth.
7. However, achieving this potential often has its many challenges. Critical issues such as inadequate data, ineffective urban governance systems, limited capacities in urban planning, and insufficient funding impede the realization of sustainable urbanization.
8. It is against this background that our Ministry is implementing the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme which His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched in February, 2024. Under this initiative, we plan to deliver a total of 50,000 housing units across Nigeria in Phase One. The Cities will have 1,000 housing units per site in one location in each of the six geo-political zones and the FCT, while the Estates will have 250 housing units per site in the remaining thirty (30) states. So far we have done groundbreaking for two Renewed Hope Cities (FCT and Kano), and Renewed Hope Estates in twelve States (Ebonyi, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Osun, Benue, Nasarawa, Oyo, Katsina, Yobe, Gombe and Sokoto) making a total of 6,612 homes.
9. We have designed the Renewed Hope Cities as integrated living communities targeting all income brackets. They comprise one-bedroom blocks of flats, two-bedroom blocks of flats, and three-bedroom blocks of flats; two-, three-, and four-bedroom terraces; four-bedroom duplexes; and five-bedroom duplexes.
10. On the other hand, we have conceptualized the Renewed Hope Estates to cater to low- and medium-income earners. They comprise one-, two-, and three-bedroom semi-detached bungalows. To enhance affordability and ease of offtake, we used organic designs where one bedroom can be expanded to two-bedrooms and three-bedrooms as the income of beneficiaries increases over time.
11. I am pleased to inform you that we have incorporated sustainable design measures to ensure that the cities and estates are climate smart and environmentally friendly.
12. The funding for these projects will come from a mix of sources, including the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s budgetary allocation, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), and Public Private Partnerships with reputable developers. We look forward to the Ansari Group coming on board as a major PPP partner.
13. We have also made cross-subsidy a key part of our efforts to enhance affordability for low-medium income earners to foster integrated living. Under this concept, the housing units built in the Renewed Hope Cities will be sold at commercial rates while a substantial percentage will be sold at concessionary rates to low- and medium-income Nigerians.
14. The Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme is a necessity to tackle Nigeria’s rapid population growth, meet the rising demand for housing and urban infrastructure, congestion, and strained infrastructure.
15. It is also designed as a catalyst for economic growth. The construction and development of these new areas will generate employment opportunities, stimulate local businesses, and attract investments. The 50,000 housing units that we plan to deliver under Phase One will create 1,250,000 direct and indirect construction jobs. This is in addition to the value chain effects of purchasing, supplying building materials, and businesses around the construction sites.
16. As you may be aware, Nigeria has a 200million population with an annual growth rate of 2.5 percent per annum. We have a huge housing deficit that requires us to build 550,000 housing units per annum over the next ten years. This requires about N5.5Trillion Annually (equivalent of about $300bn USD).
17. The 50,000 units we plan to deliver under phase one of the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme is relatively ambitious but small when compared to the size of the problem and the quantum of resources required. That is why we are looking to PPPs and collaborations with organizations such as yours that we can leverage to bridge the gap.
18. Also, in line with Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda to ensure that all Nigerians, including those with no income, vulnerable, and underprivileged groups, have access to decent and dignified accommodation, we are working to establish a National Social Housing Fund (NSHF). We believe that access to decent shelter is not only a necessity but a human right, and that all Nigerians across all income segments deserve a decent home to live and grow.
19. The National Social Housing Fund is very important in our plans to increase access to decent housing to Nigerians and will also appreciate your Group’s partnership towards making it a reality and creating impact. As you may be aware, Nigeria is a low-income country with weak purchasing power. In fact, 85% of Nigeria’s 43m households have less than N1.1M purchasing power per annum (equivalent of $730USD): (17.2m fall into poverty-income group; 20.2m fall into the low-income group). This large group of Nigerians lack the financial capacity to own homes based on market rates and even through existing government programmes such as the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme.
20. Our government has realised that the only practical strategy to tackling this challenge is through a TRANSPARENT, ACCOUNTABLE and IMPACT-DRIVEN social housing system that blends budgetary allocation, PPPs, donations from charity and philantropic organizations, corporate social responsibility.
21. We would therefore appreciate a partnership with you in this regard particularly towards accessing concessionary funding from investors, donations, grants from charity organizations and philantrophic bodies.
22. Another equally important area of interest to our country and the Ministry is encouraging the local manufacture of building materials. We plan to establish one building materials manufacturing hubs in each of the six (6) geopolitical zones of the country. We envision the Manufacturing hubs to have proper infrastructure including access to uninterrupted power, linkage roads, housing etc. This is still in line with our goal to lower the cost of housing construction, enhance access to homeownership, create local jobs and boost economic development.
23. We are currently exploring potential partners and investors that we can work with to set the Building Manufacturing Hubs and would also like your support in this regard.
24. I have taken time to go through these key initiatives to establish clarity on the key areas of need for a possible collaboration and partnership between the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the Ansari Group. As a government, we are clear on what we want to do and are making efforts.
25. As an international global firm, we would like to partner with the Ansari Group in the areas of technical capacity building, raising concessionary financing for the expansion of our Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme, implementation our National Social Housing Fund and establishment of Building Materials Manufacturing Hubs across the country.
26. Once again, I would like to thank Her Excellency, Dr. Sania A. Ansari for setting up this meeting.
27. I really hope that at the end of the deliberations in this meeting we shall come up with an actionable document that helps us to achieve our goals of building affordable, sustainable and environmentally friendly cities and communities as well as tackling systemic challenges that have worked against housing development in our dear country, Nigeria.
28. Thank you.

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CROSS SECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE WORKSHOP ON NATIONAL LAND REGISTRATION, DOCUMENTATION AND TITLING PROGRAMME (NLRDTP)

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