HDAN seeks national mortgage guarantee, inclusion framework

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqa Rabe Darma, has said that the Federal Government is determined to rehabilitate and deliver more homes to Nigerians to reduce the housing deficit before the end of 2026.

Darma spoke during an inspection of the abandoned housing estate under the National Housing Programme, located in the Kubwa-Karsana District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), saying that all abandoned government housing properties will be rehabilitated, upgraded, completed, and put to productive use.

He also said they are taking steps to complete viable housing projects for Nigerians to benefit, adding that it is part of the Federal Government’s efforts to advance the Renewed Hope Housing Agenda.

The minister, however, expressed concern over the continued abandonment of government housing projects, stressing that public assets should be completed and made available to citizens rather than allowed to deteriorate.

“The Federal Government would take decisive steps to upgrade and complete viable abandoned housing projects across the country, to deliver more affordable and decent homes to Nigerians,” he said.

Similarly, he maintained that existing investments would help the government deliver housing more efficiently while ensuring that public resources already committed to such projects are not wasted, but that properties are completed and made available to Nigerians under the Renewed Hope Housing Agenda.

Meanwhile, the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) yesterday proposed the establishment of a national mortgage guarantee and inclusion framework that would bring together the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), Ministry of Finance Incorporated Real Estate Investment Fund (MREIF), and Family Homes Fund Limited (FHFL).

The group said the framework should also include commercial banks, primary mortgage banks and other stakeholders to expand access to affordable housing finance in the country.

The advocacy group made the call in a new report by its Research and Economic Development Unit, stressing that Nigeria needs a coordinated mortgage system capable of serving not only salaried workers but also traders, artisans, farmers, entrepreneurs and other Nigerians earning legitimate but irregular incomes.

HDAN explained that Nigeria already has several institutions and interventions capable of supporting a stronger mortgage market, which need better coordination around long-term funding, risk sharing, affordable housing supply and financial inclusion.

It said: “Nigeria does not necessarily need to keep creating new housing-finance institutions. We need to connect the institutions and interventions we already have and make them work together at scale.”