The federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has budgeted a paltry N105 billion to address the country's housing deficit despite an annual requirement of N5 trillion.
Checks by Daily Trust show that the budgeted amount is just 2% of the N5 trillion.
Daily Trust reports that available statistics show that Nigeria is grappling with a staggering housing deficit of 28 million units, while the country boast of an estimated 923,768 square kilomters of land
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Experts have overtime argued that despite these large kilomters of land, there is huge untapped potentials which has led to massive housing deficit.
Subsequently, in the 2026 Appropriation Bill presented by President Tinubu to the national assembly, the housing ministry budgeted about N105 billion to cater for both recurrent and capital expenditure out of the N54 trillion budget presented by the national assembly.
Checks by Daily Trust show that the allocation represents only a fraction of the funding required to close the country's housing deficit.
Budget breakdown
A breakdown of the N105.94 billion budget of the federal ministry of housing and urban development led by Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa by Daily Trust show that the ministry had a Clcapital allocation of N95.32 billion while personnel cost is expected to gulp N7.868 billion, just as Overhead Cost was put at N2.753 billion bringing the total allocation to N105.94 billion
Some of the key projects as seen by Daily Trust in the 2026 Budget includes 20,000 housing units under Renewed Hope Housing Scheme which is expected to gulp N8.05 billion while the construction of social housing scheme in 774 Local Government Arras was allocated N3 billion
In the same vein, the construction of roads and erosion control across the country by the ministry was allocated N1.6 billion while Prototype Housing Scheme in Suleija and Ikorodu of Niger and Lagos states is set to take N2.1 billion
The ministry also plans to establish a National Land Commission with N70 million and anothet N70 million for the facilitation of national land review policy
In the same vein, the urban and slum renewal upgrade programme is expected to gulp N273 million while construction of roads and drainages was put at N619 million
A further breakdown show that solar lights construction in Ekiti will take N245 million in the 2026 budget
Budgeted amount just 2% of N5trn annual requirement
Further analysis by Daily Trust show that the amount forms a tiny 2 per cent of the annual N5 trillion funding requirement.
Recall that the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mr Ahmed Dangiwa, had disclosed that Nigeria will need about N5.5 trillion annually to build roughly 55,000 housing units every year if the country aspires to close the current housing deficit in the next 10 years.
While speaking to members of the House of Representatives Committee on Housing and Habitat led by Abdulmumin Jibrin, Dangiwa requested that the ministry could commence budgeting at least N500 billion for the sector annually.
Being a low income country, the minister said that Nigeria has a high cost of building materials problem, with 85 per cent of Nigerians, which is 43 million households, having less than N1.1 million purchasing power per annum.
Already, a PwC housing survey, Dangiwa said that 75 per cent or 31.6 million of the 42 million housing units were substandard.
To add to that, 97 per cent of land is still unregistered, which means that over $300 billion is still characterised as dead capital, coupled with high construction cost, importation of building materials, inflation, low access to mortgage, among others.
Consequently, Akintoye Adeoye, President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), highlighted the growing incidence of fraudulent developers and unethical practices in the sector. He called for a multi-pronged approach to protect investors, including stricter enforcement of professional ethics, the operationalisation of the Real Estate Regulatory Council of Nigeria (RECON), and collaboration with the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM).
He identified bureaucratic bottlenecks in land administration, indiscriminate demolitions, high financing costs, limited long-term mortgage products, poor infrastructure, and dependence on imported building materials as major obstacles to private sector-led housing development. He urged policymakers to streamline land titling processes, recapitalise the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), and incentivise local building materials production to improve housing accessibility.
More states enrolled for renewed hope housing scheme - Dangiwa
Meanwhile the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, in Abuja recently during the ministry's expanded management meeting with heads of departments and units stressed the need for the ministry to consolidate its legacy in 2026.
On Renewed Hope Cities, the minister disclosed that three additional locations, namely Maiduguri, Enugu and Port Harcourt, would come on stream.
He said that the addition would bring the total number to six, alongside the existing projects in Lagos, Abuja and Kano.
In the same vein, the ministry recently unveiled a comprehensive framework aimed at strengthening the maintenance and preservation of public assets across the country
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According to the statement, the initiative is being driven by the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development through its Department of Federal Public Assets Maintenance (FPAM), which has developed a framework containing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure effective, uniform, and sustainable maintenance of federal public assets nationwide.
It further reads: "As part of the rollout, the Ministry has commenced engagements with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to facilitate the implementation of the SOPs, providing a harmonised approach to asset maintenance and preservation across the Federal Public Service.
"FPAM, a department under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, is statutorily responsible for the oversight of maintenance functions of federal government assets. The department was established through Presidential Executive Order No. 11, which was officially gazetted on April 6, 2022. "To ensure seamless implementation of the framework, FPAM has introduced and distributed a set of compliance forms and a comprehensive maintenance manual to MDAs. These documents form part of a certification and oversight process designed to ensure proper documentation, traceability, accountability, and alignment with established maintenance standards and protocols.
