The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqa Darma, has inaugurated a 14-member committee to drive the implementation of recommendations on reforms in the housing sector.
The committee has been given six weeks to develop a strategy aimed at transforming Nigeria’s built environment.
Darma said the committee was expected to help position the housing sector as a major contributor to the country’s economic development.
He added that it should also promote an enabling environment that would allow Nigerians to provide housing for themselves.
Speaking at the committee’s inauguration on Thursday in Abuja, the minister said the government had a responsibility to provide housing for Nigerians while regulating the built environment to maximise its contribution to the national economy.
He said, “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, and we are very responsible people.”
Darma also emphasised the need for stronger regulation of the built environment, saying the sector had significant potential to boost Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.
He said, “We also have the task of ensuring that the built environment is very much regulated so that it will contribute to the national economy. The 2025 data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics indicated that this sector provided more than 70% of the contribution to the national economy.
“In other countries, some of them developing countries like ours, for example, South Africa, even in smaller countries like Kenya, this same sector that contributed more than 70% contributed between 22 to 27% of the GDPs of countries similar to ours.”
The minister expressed optimism that the proposed reforms would strengthen the industry’s contribution to Nigeria’s economic growth.
He said, “We shall be able to steer this industry to contribute significantly to the development of the economy of this country.
“It is therefore important for members of this committee, who have been carefully selected to drive the transformation process of this industry, to work to ensure that at the end of each hour our dream comes to pass. We have a dream of making this industry the greatest industry to the contributor of the economy in this country.”
Darma urged members of the committee to remain committed to the assignment, assuring them that the ministry would pursue the reforms despite the challenges.
He said, “And 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. And I am sure members of the implementation committee, who will be given just a month and a half to submit reports, will work day and night to please come up with an implementation strategy to make sure that we transform the entire built environment industry.”
He disclosed that the committee comprises 14 members and will be chaired by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary.
He said, “And the chairman of this committee is none other than the Permanent Secretary of this ministry. We call you Transformative Permanent Secretary. So the assignment to transform this entire built environment is on your head. We will see how committed you are at the end of this assignment.”
The minister said the committee’s mandate was to develop a built environment that would accommodate all stakeholders and make a significant contribution to the national economy.
He said, “Gentlemen and ladies, you have been given the task of ensuring that we have a built environment that will be the greatest contributor to the economy of this country, that will accommodate every individual who is a stakeholder in the industry.”
Darma formally inaugurated the committee and gave it six weeks to complete its assignment.
He said, “I wish to tell you that from this point on, you have been inaugurated as the implementation committee of the stakeholders’ submission to the ministry, and you have been given six weeks to complete your work.”
Responding on behalf of the committee, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Shuaib Belgore, described the assignment as a privilege to improve housing outcomes for Nigerians.
He said the committee would also work towards standardising practices across the sector and unlocking the industry’s potential to contribute more significantly to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.
Belgore assured the minister that the committee shared his urgency to deliver results, adding that it had already received a working document for review.
He said the committee would examine the document thoroughly to identify gaps and refine it into an effective implementation framework.
The Permanent Secretary pledged the committee’s full cooperation and commitment to fulfilling its mandate within the six-week timeframe.
He added that further consultations would be held with stakeholders as the framework develops to secure broad support for the proposed reforms.
Belgore thanked the minister on behalf of the committee for the opportunity to contribute to efforts aimed at ensuring that Nigerian families have access to adequate housing.
Also speaking through the statement, the Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Shehu Osidi, commended Darma for initiating the reform process, noting that some of the proposals were already in line with measures being pursued by the bank.
Drawing on the FMBN’s previous experience, Osidi said efforts to advance the National Housing Fund and FMBN Acts, as well as a subsequent N500 billion recapitalisation proposal, had stalled due to resistance from stakeholders.
He stressed that effective engagement with stakeholders would therefore be crucial to the success of the latest reform initiative.
A representative of the Federal Housing Authority, who spoke in the absence of its Managing Director, also expressed the agency’s commitment to the reform process.
The representative said it was the FHA’s vision to see the ministry, under Darma’s leadership, emerge as the leading ministry in the country.
He assured that the agency would work closely with the committee to achieve results that would make Nigerians, President Bola Tinubu and the minister proud.