The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, has said that the federal government was exploring a partnership with the World Bank to increase the rate of land titling nationwide from its current 10 per cent to 50 per cent in 10 years.

The minister who spoke in Abuja during a ministerial press briefing on the achievements of the ministry in the last one year, also announced a deal with Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) to fund the construction of 5,000 housing units in the country.

“This framework for advisory services and financing towards the construction of 5,000 affordable housing units under the Renewed Hope Agenda is a first in the ministry’s history,” Dangiwa stated.

Through the land titling drive, Dangiwa stated that by recording land transactions and ownership, and implementing advanced digital tools and technologies, the ministry seeks to ensure efficient land data management and accessibility for all stakeholders.

“As part of our land reforms we are exploring a partnership with the World Bank towards the implementation of a National Land Titling Programme (NLRDP) Through this programme, we aim to partner with state governments towards improving land formalisation from the less than 10 per cent to 50 per cent in the next 10 years.

“Through this initiative, the government through the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development aims to establish a comprehensive, efficient, and accessible land registration system across Nigeria in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda President Bola Tinubu.

“By recording land transactions and ownership, and implementing advanced digital tools and technologies, the NLRDP seeks to ensure efficient land data management and accessibility for all stakeholders,” Dangiwa stated.

Dangiwa stated that the government had made good progress in fixing the issues with the Federal Land Information System (FELIS) as part of efforts to centralise records of federal government land, ensuring their safety and integrity.

For years, he stated that the nation had grappled with conflicting and unsubstantiated figures regarding its housing 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”, prompting the inauguration of a Joint Steering Committee on National Housing Data.

Dangiwa stated that the government had made substantial progress in increasing the stock of affordable and decent housing stock for Nigerians with the groundbreaking for 6,612 housing units across 13 locations nationwide under the Ministry’s Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Programme.

This, he said, includes the 3,112-housing unit Renewed Hope City in Karsana Abuja, under Public Private Partnership (PPP).

“Twelve other locations are being funded under the 2023 Supplementary Budget and they include the 500 Renewed Hope City in Kano and 250 Renewed Hope Estates in Katsina, Yobe, Gombe, Sokoto, Ebonyi, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Benue, Nasarawa, Osun and Oyo,” he added.

At an average of 25 jobs per house, the 6,612 housing units, according to Dangiwa, are providing jobs for over 165,000 skilled and unskilled Nigerians, in addition to the value chain effects of purchase, supply of building materials, businesses around the construction sites, among others.

Over the past couple of months, he stated that analytics showed that over 47,605 Nigerians – local and abroad – had created accounts on the housing portal – indicating interest in homeownership.

“In fact, over the last two weeks alone, over 250,000 Nigerians have visited the website. Thirdly, we have also expanded the Ministry’s Urban Renewal and Slum Upgrade Programme. Under Phase 1 of the Slum Upgrading Programme, the Ministry has projects ongoing in a total of 26 sites nationwide,” Dangiwa added.

On the sale and occupation of the housing units across the country, he said the ministry received a total of 8,925 Expressions of Interest.

“This comprises 1,294 for Outright Purchase, 2,408 for Mortgage, 2,184 for Rent-To-Own and 3,039 for Instalment payment. We have released the 1st batch of Offer of Provisional Allocation Letters for Outright Payment for successful applicants and keys issued to some of them.

“ Those who applied to own the homes via mortgage are currently being processed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN),” he added.