Chairman, Senate Committee on Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Aminu Tambuwal, yesterday, called for the adoption of innovative strategies that could unlock opportunities for affordable housing, expand private sector participation and strengthen institutional frameworks in the housing sector.

Tambuwal made the call at the housing sector retreat on “Actualising the Renewed Hope agenda for housing and urban development: examining strategies, identifying opportunities to boost scale and impact”, organised by the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in Lagos.

The lawmaker pointed out the need for stakeholders to identify challenges and implement solutions that would transform the housing sector, improve service delivery, and bridge Nigeria’s housing deficit.

“The Senate and, by extension, the entire National Assembly will continue to collaborate with the ministry, its agencies and other stakeholders to ensure that housing initiatives align with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present administration and international best practices,” Tambuwal said.

He emphasised that a key part of achieving the agenda was the funding of priority projects to enable the ministry to discharge its mandate effectively.

This, he said, included initiatives such as the Renewed Hope City and Estates Programme, the National Housing Programme, the construction and rehabilitation of federal secretariats, and the settlement of outstanding liabilities to local contractors, among others.

He disclosed that the committee was also making efforts to reinstate the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) in the federal budget, allowing it to replicate past successes such as FESTAC Town and Gwarimpa Estate.

In his keynote address, the Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, lauded the committee for its intervention by increasing the ministry budget by an additional N50 billion, adding that the development would allow more Nigerians to benefit from the ministry’s interventions, additional jobs that would be created, businesses and individuals that would be empowered through increased capacity to offset inherited liabilities, and the positive impact on the economy.

Dangiwa said Nigeria must prioritise housing, as a catalyst for economic growth, noting that investment in housing and urban development was not only a moral necessity but also an economic imperative.

He said the size of the housing deficit required that government should target to build no fewer than 500,000 housing units, yearly, adding that under the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Federal Government, the ministry was determined to make a difference by increasing the supply and availability of decent and affordable housing to Nigerians, implementing land reforms to improve land administration, thereby unlocking the capacity of the real estate sector to contribute to economic growth and grow the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), among others.