The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqha Rabe Darma, has inaugurated a 14-member committee to implement stakeholder recommendations aimed at reforming Nigeria’s housing and built environment sectors.
Darma gave the committee six weeks to develop an implementation strategy, charging its members to produce reforms that would improve housing delivery, strengthen regulation and increase the sector’s contribution to the economy.
The minister spoke on Thursday in Abuja during the inauguration of the committee, which is chaired by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Shuaib Belgore.
Darma said the Federal Government had a responsibility not only to provide housing for Nigerians but also to create an enabling environment for individuals and private investors to provide homes.
“First of all, we have the task of housing Nigerians. If we can’t house them, we have the task of providing the enabling environment for them to house themselves. We must do it. It is our responsibility,” he said.
He also stressed the need for effective regulation of the built environment, saying the sector had considerable potential to support economic development.
Darma said the committee had been carefully selected to drive the transformation of the industry and develop a framework that would accommodate the interests of stakeholders across the built environment.
He urged the members to work with urgency, assuring them that the ministry would remain committed to the reform process despite the challenges involved.
“We are going to do it. We will not relent in doing it. We don’t know the word impossible. All we see is possibility,” the minister said.
Darma said the committee had been given six weeks to complete its work and submit an implementation strategy capable of transforming the built environment.
The committee’s assignment forms part of a wider reform agenda being pursued by the ministry under Darma, including efforts to improve housing data, strengthen regulation and mobilise private-sector investment.
In July, the Federal Government brought together stakeholders in the housing and built environment sector to validate policy documents focused on strengthening regulation and establishing a credible national housing data system.
Responding on behalf of the committee, Belgore described the assignment as a privilege and an opportunity to improve housing outcomes for Nigerians.
He said the committee had already received a working document which would be thoroughly reviewed to identify gaps and refine it into an effective implementation framework.
Belgore assured the minister of the committee’s cooperation and pledged that members would work within the six-week deadline. He added that further consultations would be held with stakeholders as the framework takes shape.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Shehu Osidi, commended Darma for initiating the reform process.
Osidi said some of the proposals were already consistent with measures being pursued by the bank, but noted that stakeholder resistance had affected previous attempts to advance reforms involving the National Housing Fund and FMBN Acts.
He also referenced a previous N500bn recapitalisation proposal, stressing that broad consultation would be crucial to ensuring that the latest reform initiative succeeds.
A representative of the Federal Housing Authority also pledged the agency’s support for the committee, saying it would work with the ministry to deliver the reforms.
The committee is expected to submit its implementation strategy at the end of the six-week period, setting the stage for the ministry to begin translating stakeholder recommendations into concrete policy and regulatory actions.
