Operators in the built industry have noted that the additional N50bn allocated to the housing budget through the intervention of the National Assembly Committees is still insufficient to meet the sector’s demands.
The Managing Director of Fame Oyster & Co. Nigeria, Femi Oyedele, made this observation while thanking the National Assembly for their unprecedented roles in ensuring there is housing adequacy in Nigeria and let them know that N50 bn added to the original budget will still not be impactful, adding that it was better than nothing.
He said, “The initial Ministry of Housing and Urban Development budget when the proposed national budget was N49.7 trn was N98.1 bn. Now that the budget is N54.99 trn, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s new budget is N148.1bn. The ministry earmarked N11.5 bn in the 2025 budget for the construction of 20,000 housing units under the Renewed Hope Agenda’s housing scheme. N54.99 trn has been approved by the National Assembly as the 2025 budget of Nigeria. This is an increase of N7.09 trn on the N49.70 trn. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development made a strong plea for the budget to be increased by N360 bn. Only a paltry sum of 18 per cent of the plea was approved as N50 bn was eventually added.
“The housing deficit in Nigeria is about 28 million, and by the projection of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of construction, 20,000 housing units with N11.5 bn, N50 bn will only do 86,956 units. These units are negligible in the amount required for the 28 million housing units’ deficit and for the building materials manufacturing hubs the ministry planned to construct in the six regions in Nigeria.
“Corruption is our bane of inadequate housing.
We need to fight corruption first before we ask for more allocation. The government should do performance management of the institutions that collected money and squandered it.”
In a similar vein, the treasurer of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Victoria Island Branch, Babatunji Adegoke, asserted that the additional increase was insufficient.
He said, “I do not think the N50bn increase in the housing budget is sufficient. Even if the total N150bn budget for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is allocated to social housing (which is not the case because the budget includes other recurrent expenditures), that would mean an average of N5400bn has been allocated to solve the housing deficit of 28m.
“This is rather inadequate, although it is understandable that the housing deficit cannot be resolved in a year, but adequate funding should be allocated to it to reduce it to the barest minimum because housing is a basic need.”
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of Ace Hi-Tech Construction Co. Ltd., Adewunmi Okupe, said the additional sum cannot be sufficient, bearing in mind the huge lingering deficit in the housing sector.
He said, “The additional N50bn to the housing sector is a welcome and laudable idea that shows government willingness and commitment to solving the housing problems in Nigeria. However, it cannot be sufficient, bearing in mind the huge deficit estimated at about 28 million houses.
“The numbers of housing units that can be built, complete with relevant infrastructure, will only at best just scratch the surface.
“To make this intervention go far, the government should create a pilot project with it that will use a novel finance mechanism that ensures that this fund regenerates itself to provide continuous cycles of funding, giving birth to more houses every predetermined number of years, unlike previous interventions that get stagnated in process.”
