Minister of Housing and Urban Development Ahmed Dangiwa outlines how the FG’s Renewed Hope Housing Programme tackles Nigeria’s 17m-unit deficit with PPPs, N70bn investment, single-digit mortgages, and land reforms in this interview with PRINCESS ETUK
What is the Renewed Hope Housing Programme all about, and what inspired this bold initiative?
The Renewed Hope Housing Programme is the flagship initiative of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to transform Nigeria’s housing and urban development landscape. Over the last two years since my appointment as Honourable Minister, I have had the privilege of leading the implementation under Mr. President’s visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to making decent, affordable housing a reality for all Nigerians.
This programme was inspired by a challenge: we could no longer ignore a housing deficit conservatively estimated at over 17 million units, coupled with decades of limited access to affordable financing and homeownership opportunities for the majority of our citizens. Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda gave us the clear directive: reset the trajectory of housing in Nigeria, close the gap, and ensure that every Nigerian, whether low-, middle-, or high-income, has a fair chance to own a home.
The programme is built on a three-pronged approach designed to meet the needs of every income segment. Renewed Hope Cities: Large-scale, master-planned communities of at least 1,000 housing units each in major urban centres. These are not just residential clusters but smart, sustainable communities with schools, hospitals, green spaces, and commercial hubs.
Renewed Hope Estates: Mid-sized estates of 250 housing units in every state capital, specifically designed for middle-income Nigerians such as civil servants, teachers, health workers, artisans, and traders.
Renewed Hope Social Housing Estates: the most socially transformative component, this will deliver 100 affordable homes in each of Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas, targeted at the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians, including homeless families and persons with disabilities.
What differentiates these projects from past housing efforts?
From the onset, President Tinubu was very clear in his directive: housing must have a broad national reach and must deliver real impact for ordinary Nigerians. Guided by this vision, we deliberately designed the Renewed Hope Housing Programme to ensure that no region, no state, and ultimately no local government area is left behind.
Today, under the first phase of the programme, we already have major housing projects underway across 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
This geographical spread, with at least two states in each geopolitical zone, is intentional. It demonstrates that the Renewed Hope Agenda is not a promise for a few urban centres but a national programme that will, in time, reach all 36 states and every one of the 774 LGAs through our Renewed Hope Cities, Estates, and Social Housing components.
What truly sets this initiative apart from previous housing efforts is that five key differentiators are that previous programmes struggled due to over-reliance on limited government budgets. Under Mr. President’s leadership, we have adopted Public-Private Partnerships and blended financing models, mobilising over N70bn in private capital already. This approach ensures financial sustainability, faster delivery, and scalability beyond annual budgetary allocations.
Also, for the first time, Nigerians can apply online via our Digital Housing Portal (www.renewedhopehomes.fmhud.gov.ng) from anywhere in the country or abroad. There are no middlemen, no gatekeepers, and no favouritism. Allocation is fair, transparent, and technology-driven.
We are unlocking homeownership for everyday Nigerians through single-digit interest rate mortgages, rent-to-own schemes with zero down payments, and up to 30-year repayment periods through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. This is a first in Nigeria’s history, opening doors that were previously closed to millions.
In just under two years, we have broken ground on over 10,000 housing units, surpassing the performance of previous initiatives that delivered only about 3,500 units over eight years.
How significant is the economic impact of the housing programme in terms of employment and local economic stimulation?
One of the most powerful aspects of this housing programme, is that it is not just a social intervention; it is also a strategic economic growth tool. First, there is job creation. Housing delivery is highly labour-intensive. For every single home we build, an average of 25 direct and indirect jobs are created along the value chain. This includes masons, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, welders, roofers, painters, engineers, architects, truck drivers, suppliers of building materials, and many others whose livelihoods depend on the construction ecosystem.
With 10,112 housing units currently under construction nationwide, we have already generated over 250,000 jobs in less than two years. These are not just statistics; they represent real incomes for real people. We have seen artisans on our project sites earn between N120,000 and N150,000 monthly, in some cases for the first time in their lives. These earnings are flowing directly into local economies, supporting families, paying school fees, funding small businesses, and reducing poverty in tangible ways.
Second, the programme is stimulating local industries. By prioritising the use of locally produced building materials like cement, blocks, roofing sheets, paints, tiles, doors, and windows, we are boosting demand for domestic manufacturers and suppliers.
Third, we are opening up new urban growth corridors. Projects like the Renewed Hope City in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, are strategically located to complement major infrastructure investments such as the Dangote Refinery and Lekki Deep Sea Port. These developments are creating economic clusters, attracting new businesses, and unlocking previously underutilised land for commercial and residential use.
Why is the Nigeria Land Registration, Documentation, and Titling Programme important, and what impact will it have?
The Nigeria Land Registration, Documentation, and Titling Programme is one of the most ambitious and far-reaching structural reforms we are championing. This is because land is the foundation of everything: housing, agriculture, industrialisation, infrastructure development, and investment. Without secure and transparent land administration, our housing revolution cannot reach its full potential.
Today, one of the biggest obstacles to economic growth in Nigeria is that over 96 per cent of the land remains untitled and undocumented. This means millions of Nigerians live, farm, or do business on land that is not legally recognised. Without valid titles such as Certificates of Occupancy, they cannot access bank loans, secure their investments, or confidently pass on land assets to their children. Economists refer to this as “dead capital”, wealth that exists in theory but cannot be unlocked or used productively.
The NLRDTP is designed to change this reality. It is a bold, systemic, and coordinated reform aimed at working hand-in-hand with state governments, who constitutionally control land within their territories, to modernise, digitise, and streamline land administration nationwide.
One of the key pillars of this programme is that the National Land Reform and Digitisation Programme focuses on modernising Nigeria’s land administration system to make it more transparent, efficient, and accessible. It involves digitising land records across states and the FCT, replacing slow, paper-based systems that are vulnerable to loss, forgery, and manipulation.
This reform is expected to have a far-reaching impact on Nigeria’s economy. It will unlock over $300bn in dead capital, empowering landowners, farmers, and entrepreneurs to use their land as collateral for credit and business growth. It will also help reduce the high number of land disputes currently burdening the courts and scaring off investors, while providing greater transparency and security of tenure for both local and foreign investors. For the housing sector, in particular, the reform addresses one of the biggest obstacles developers face – land acquisition and titling delays – thus accelerating the delivery of affordable housing projects nationwide.
The Federal Government is collaborating with progressive state governments already digitising their land registries, offering technical support, shared infrastructure, and capacity building to expand these reforms nationwide. International development partners, including the World Bank, have expressed strong interest in financially and technically supporting the programme because of its potential to unlock capital, deepen financial inclusion, enhance urban planning, and drive economic growth. The NLRDTP is positioned not just as a land reform initiative but as a wealth creation and nation-building effort, turning land into a bankable asset and laying the groundwork for sustainable housing and prosperity for generations to come.
How is the PPP model working in practice, and what roles are developers playing?
From the very beginning, President Tinubu was very clear that addressing Nigeria’s housing deficit would require a whole-of-society approach. The scale of the challenge – over 17 million housing units needed – cannot be met by government resources alone. Public funds are limited, and traditional, fully government-driven housing delivery has proven to be slow, inefficient, and unsustainable.
This is why the Renewed Hope Housing Programme is deliberately anchored on a Public-Private Partnership model, combining the government’s enabling role with private sector capital, expertise, and efficiency. This approach ensures that we can deliver more homes, at a faster pace, with better quality, and at a scale that truly begins to close the housing gap.
So far, the PPP framework is working well, and we are working to scale it further. We have already mobilised over N70bn in private sector investments from reputable developers, financiers, and institutional investors. These funds are currently being deployed to finance thousands of housing units across the country, demonstrating that housing can be a viable, bankable sector when structured correctly.
What does the Shelter Afrique partnership mean, and how many homes can it help to deliver?
The partnership with Shelter Afrique Development Bank marks a historic milestone in Nigeria’s efforts to attract sustainable international financing for affordable housing development. Shelter Afrique is a pan-African housing finance institution dedicated to supporting affordable housing and urban infrastructure projects across the continent.
Nigeria is the second-largest shareholder in Shelter Afrique, yet for many years we were not fully leveraging this position to channel significant investments into our housing sector. Under the leadership of President Tinubu, that has now changed.
Earlier this year, as part of the Renewed Hope Agenda, we signed a landmark financing agreement with Shelter Afrique to deliver 5,000 affordable housing units across select pilot locations in Nigeria. This is the first direct project financing deal between Shelter Afrique and Nigeria in over a decade, and it reflects renewed confidence in our housing policies, governance structures, and the credibility of the Renewed Hope Housing Programme.
This partnership does more than provide financing. It signals that Nigeria is now a serious, reliable destination for large-scale housing investments, opening the door for other international development finance institutions, pension funds, and diaspora investors to partner with us. The model being piloted with Shelter Afrique will help us unlock long-term, low-cost financing, enabling us to scale up delivery and make housing truly affordable for Nigerians.
What’s the implementation plan and target beneficiaries for the Renewed Hope Social Housing Programme?
The Renewed Hope Social Housing Programme is the heart of our pro-poor housing strategy and one of the most socially transformative aspects of President Tinubu’s vision for housing. It is designed to ensure that no Nigerian is left behind, particularly those who have traditionally been excluded from formal housing markets: low-income earners, informal sector workers, and the most vulnerable members of our society.
The goal is bold but clear: to deliver 77,400 affordable homes, with 100 housing units in each of Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas. This is the most decentralised, inclusive housing intervention ever launched in Nigeria, taking housing development directly to rural and peri-urban communities that have historically been neglected. The programme is designed for artisans, persons living with disabilities, internally displaced persons, young Nigerians, civil servants in rural postings, teachers, healthcare workers, and agricultural extension officers who often struggle to find decent accommodation near their duty stations.
This programme will be rolled out simultaneously across all 774 LGAs; we expect the programme to generate over two million direct and indirect jobs, deepen construction skills, and help establish a network of small- and medium-scale contractors nationwide.
In the long term, the Renewed Hope Social Housing Programme will help rebalance Nigeria’s urban development, ensuring that growth and opportunities are not concentrated in big cities alone but spread evenly across the country.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in implementing the Renewed Hope Housing Programme, and how have you addressed them?
Every bold reform faces challenges, and housing is no exception. When Mr. President tasked me two years ago with resetting the sector, he was clear: “Break the barriers that have kept Nigerians from owning their homes.” One major obstacle has been land access and titling. Land administration, controlled by state governments, has long been slow, costly, and bureaucratic, making housing delivery difficult. We have partnered with progressive governors who now donate land for Renewed Hope projects and have streamlined approvals. At the federal level, we are implementing the Nigeria Land Registration, Documentation, and Titling Programme to make transactions faster and more transparent.
Access to affordable housing finance is another hurdle. Mortgages have historically been expensive, with high interest rates that exclude most Nigerians. In response, we are implementing single-digit interest mortgages through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, introducing rent-to-own schemes with zero down payments, and creating public-private housing funds to ease pressure on federal budgets while increasing financing options for developers and homebuyers.
We are also addressing the issue of public trust, eroded by years of failed housing schemes. Through our Digital Housing Portal, we are removing middlemen, curbing corruption, and ensuring inclusiveness. Working with credible developers and financiers, we are completing projects on schedule. With strong political will and collaboration from states, investors, and development partners, we are dismantling systemic barriers and laying the foundation for a future where homeownership is achievable for every Nigerian. This is the Renewed Hope we are delivering today and for generations to come.
