FG Intends to Provide 1 Million Low-Cost Housing Units for Vulnerable Citizens 

The goal of the federal government’s Renewed Hope Shelter Program is to provide one million affordable housing units over the course of the following seven years.

On Tuesday, November 28, 2023, in Abuja, during the Sixth Nigeria Affordable Housing Finance and Innovation Summit (NAHFIS Expo 2023), Chidimma Makuachukwu, the National Programme Manager for Renewed Hope Shelter for the Poor, IDPs, and Refugees, made this announcement.

Under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the Renewed Hope Shelter Program seeks to work with state and local governments to acquire land for the development of reasonably priced housing units for disadvantaged populations.

According to Makuachukwu, the project has already started with the Federal Government receiving a 10-hectare parcel of land from Benue State.

By 2024, the program is expected to have spread to every state in Nigeria, with primary goal of housing internally displaced people (IDPs) and promoting their return to their ancestral homes.

“We are working with the state government in conjunction with the local authorities to get land; currently, we are in Benue. What we are doing is resettling the IDPs back to their ancestral homes with the support of state and local authorities,” explained Makuachukwu.

According to her, the project aims to support local governments’ economic development by utilizing their labor and content.

This program supports the goals of President Bola Tinubu, who wants to empower communities and encourage self-sufficiency.

Makuachukwu stated, “There is no selection process in this; it is about the vulnerable states across the Federation. If you look at Benue and what is happening there and other northern regions, including the southern states, you will be marveled. We are going everywhere by 2024.”

The initiative promotes cooperation with foreign donors, philanthropists, and embassies that are open to collaborating on the project. The fundamental funding needed for the initiative’s successful execution will be supplied by the federal government.

The event’s chairman and pro-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ambassador Boladei Igali, emphasized the significance of cooperation between states and the federal government in order to achieve the intended outcomes.

Igali cited successful case studies from South Africa and the United Kingdom, where low-income earners’ affordable municipal housing was constructed through federal government subsidies.

“To get this project done, I think we have to work more closely with the states and with sub-national entities. They have to play a great role; let our focus not only be on the Federal Capital Territory,” Igali urged.