The Renewed Hope Cities and Estates, an initiative of the federal government for providing affordable housing for Nigerians, is slowly but steadily gaining traction as the government has launched the construction of 2,000 housing units in eight states of the federation.
These eight states, which cut across northern and southern parts of the country, are Ebonyi, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Osun, Oyo, Benue, and Nasarawa States. According to the plan of delivery, each of these states will get 250 housing units.
Expectation is that on completion, about 2000 Nigerian families will be taken off the country’s crowded housing market.
Besides the houses that will be provided for Nigerians, about 50,000 skilled and unskilled workers will be employed by reason of this construction and that will come from an average of 25 workers per unit at the construction sites.
According to a close source in the ministry, Ahmed Dangiwa, the minister of housing and urban development, will kick-start the construction as from the last week of June to the first week of July, making it almost a month after the launch of construction work on 1,500 housing units in five northern states, including Katsina, Yobe, Gombe, Sokoto and Kano.
According to a statement put out by the ministry in its official website, each of the 250-unit housing project in each state will comprise 50 units of one-bedroom semi-detached bungalows, 100 units of two-bedroom semi-detached bungalows, and 50 units of three-bedroom semi-detached bungalows.
As an initiative, Renewed Hope Cities and Estates targets a total of 6,612 housing units which include 3,112 units in Abuja, 1,500 units in Katsina, Yobe, Gombe, Sokoto, and Kano States, and the present 2,000 units. All these are scheduled for completion and commissioning by the end of 2024. They will be made available for occupancy by Nigerians in need.
The initiative is aimed to tackle the housing deficit in Nigeria by delivering 1,000 housing units in each of the 36 states and 4,000 in the Federal Capital Territory. Its first phase, which began early this year with the launch of 3,112 housing units in the Karsana District of Abuja, will be executed in batches to ultimately cover the entire country.
According to the close ministry source, the initial housing projects, on which construction has already started, along with the additional 2,000 units, are funded by the 2023 supplementary budget of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. “Future projects under this initiative will be financed through the ministry’s 2024 budget,” the source added.
The ministry had, in an earlier statement signed by Mark Chieshe, special assistant on media and communications to the minister, explained that this initiative aims to promote inclusivity and integration and address inequalities by offering a range of affordable homeownership options.
“These include single-digit interest rate mortgage loans with up to 30-year terms from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), and rent-to-own option which allows beneficiaries to pay towards ownership in monthly, quarterly, or annual instalments, and outright purchase options for high-income earners,” Chieshe said.
According to him, the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme will operate as a cross-subsidy initiative, explaining that 80 percent of the housing units will be sold at commercial rates while the remaining 20 percent will be offered at concessional rates to low- and medium-income Nigerians affiliated with the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.