Dangiwa Caps One Year of Stellar Performance with Historic Housing Advisory and Development Partnership with Shelter Afrique Development Bank
The Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and leading Pan-African housing finance institution, Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) yesterday signed a historic Joint Expression of Intent to partner towards the actualization of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration for housing and urban development.
The groundbreaking partnership represents the Ministry's first direct collaboration with a multilateral institution to build homes for Nigerians under the Ministry’s Renewed Hope Housing Programme. Under the framework, Shelter Afrique Development will provide advisory services and financing to competent developers, with an initial goal of delivering 5,000 housing units in the pilot phase.
This was a key highlight at the Ministerial Briefing to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hon. Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa and the Hon. Minister of State, HE Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo which held at the NAF Conference Center in Abuja, Thursday 22nd August 2024.
Arc. Dangiwa noted that the collaboration with Shelter Afrique Development aligns with the Ministry's strategy of leveraging bi-lateral and multi-lateral housing development financial institutions to expand access to decent and affordable housing to Nigerians given the limited budgetary allocation versus the quantum of resources needed to tackle Nigeria's housing deficit.
"There is a massive and historic mismatch between the housing and urban development needs of our country versus budgetary provision. From research, Nigeria's population of over 220million with a growth rate of 2.5% p.a. requires about 550,000 units p.a. over the next ten years to meet the housing deficit. Conservatively this would require about N5.5trillion Per Annum to fix. This requires a more expansive and innovative housing finance approach and the partnership Shelter Afrique Development Bank at this stage of its transformation is a key step in this direction. We thank the Managing Director, Mr. Thierno Hann for his leadership and look forward to finalizing and getting the projects off the ground", he said.
Key aspect of the partnership framework includes ShafDB providing advisory services to the Ministry to structure affordable, solvent, ecological, and sustainable housing projects in major cities, as well as assisting the Ministry in raising funds for:
1. Development of Nigeria's Housing and Urban Development Partnership Strategy (CHUPS) by supporting the Ministry in conducting a comprehensive assessment of the housing sector market integration in Nigeria. This will be achieved through the implementation of Shelter Afrique's "VIRAL" model, aimed at expanding the availability of large-scale, affordable.
2. Structuring of PPP transaction: Shelter Afrique will provide advisory services to assist the Ministry in developing a market-attractive public-private partnership (PPP) transaction model for large-scale affordable housing programs and urban renewal projects. This model will target a minimum of 5,000 affordable and quality housing units, with the potential for nationwide replication.
3. Identification and selection of Private Partner Participants: Shelter Afrique will provide advisory services to assist the Ministry in identifying and selecting one or more strategic private sector partners (PSPs) with demonstrated expertise in the development, financing, construction, marketing, and maintenance of the PPP project.
4. Capacity Building: Shelter Afrique will provide advisory services to the Ministry through training programs, workshop seminars, policy development, and technical assistance to ensure the strengthening of the institutions' capacity and capabilities to address housing challenges and promote sustainable urban development across Nigeria.
In his response, the Managing Director/Chief Executive of ShafDB, Mr. Thierno Habib Hann stated that the event indicates the Bank's readiness to support Nigeria's housing development goals.
"This development represents a landmark and historic milestone in Shelter Afrique Development Bank's partnership with Nigeria for advisory services and financing of developers towards the construction of 5,000 affordable units to support the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Ministry for housing and urban development. This is the first time in the history of the Ministry that we will be signing a framework for partnership. It is these kinds of partnerships that the Bank was set", he noted while commending Arc. Dangiwa for his proactive and progressive approach to leadership that made it possible.
Reflecting on a year of accomplishments, the Hon Minister Dangiwa outlined key achievements in advancing the Renewed Hope Agenda, including increasing stock of affordable under the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme with groundbreaking for 6,612 housing units nationwide, launch of an online housing portal to ease homeownership, expansion of the Ministry's Urban Renewal and Slum Upgrade Programme with projects in over 26 sites nationwide, fast tracking sale and occupation of the housing units under the National Housing Programme.
The construction of 6,612 housing units has already created jobs for an estimated 165,000 skilled and unskilled workers, with future plans to deliver 50,000 units expected to provide employment for 1.25 million Nigerians.
Arc. Dangiwa also noted that work is at an advanced stage on several other initiatives. This includes plans to establish the National Social Housing Fund (NSHF) to cater to the housing needs of low, no income and vulnerable Nigerians, partnership with the World Bank towards the implementation of a National Land Titling Programme to increase land formalization and unlock the potential of land as an economic resource for the government and Nigerians.
On plans for the new year, Arc. Dangiwa said that he was optimistic that more progress would be made towards actualizing the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President for the sector.
"As we move into the new year, I am hopeful that we will maintain the tempo of our activities and record more milestones towards actualizing the Renewed Hope Agenda of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for Housing and Urban Development.
We plan to do groundbreaking for 2, 000 housing unit Renewed Hope Cities in Lagos, and 1,500 housing unit Renewed City in Kano through PPP and FMBN next month. We have also acquired land in Enugu and Borno where we plan to build a 2,000 housing unit Renewed Hope City in each location under a PPP arrangement. Other planned locations for the Cities include Nasarawa (2,000 units) and Rivers (2000 units).
Overall, the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme now has footprints in the FCT and 12 states. Remaining 18 States. We are currently engaging the National Assembly and Stakeholders towards 2024 Supplementary budgetary provision to enable us kickstart the projects in those 18 remaining States. Most of them have already provided us with unencumbered land at no cost".
The Hon. Minister expressed gratitude to the National Assembly, particularly the Senate and House Committees on Housing and Urban Development, for their continued support, as well as to the Ministry's agencies, staff, and members of the media.
