Former minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, has canvassed urgent measures to tackle Nigeria’s worsening housing crisis.
He advocated the local production of building materials and decentralisation of infrastructure management.
Gana spoke inAbuja as the special guest of honour at the 19th Africa International Housing Show (AIHS 2025), with the theme “Re-imagining housing through innovation, collaboration and policy”.
The former minister described the event as a critical platform for shaping Africa’s housing future, praising its role in fostering international collaborations and attracting participants from over 26 countries.
While commending President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration for its housing renewal agenda aimed at expanding affordable housing, Professor Gana also applauded the recapitalisation of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) from ₦2.5 billion to ₦500 billion, describing it as “a vital step designed to expand the Bank’s capacity for affordable housing delivery.”
Professor Gana expressed grave concern over the deepening housing affordability crisis, saying,” Despite these commendable efforts, I must raise a serious alarm. We are facing an escalating crisis of high house prices and prohibitive interest rates, which are making housing increasingly unaffordable for the average Nigerian worker.
“This represents a significant barrier to home ownership, and remains a major contributor to our nation’s staggering housing deficit, currently estimated to be between 17 and 22 million units. Thus, more than 90% of Nigerians cannot afford to purchase a home.
“The root causes are obvious. Inflation, currently at 23.71 percent as of April 2025 drives up construction costs, while the Central Bank of Nigeria’s high interest rate of 27.5% means that typical mortgage rates often exceed 20 percent, making housing finance largely inaccessible. The compound devaluation of the naira only exacerbates these issues, greatly raising the cost of imported building materials.”
To address the challenges, Professor Gana stressed the urgent need to reduce reliance on imported building materials, which constitute 50–70% of housing costs, and called for the establishment of building material manufacturing hubs in Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
Professor Gana, who also serves as pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos, said, “It is time to think outside the box and begin to address how we can reduce our dependency on the importation of building materials.
“We must come together and produce ‘Made in Nigeria’ houses. Indeed, promoting the widespread adoption of local content in housing delivery is a strategic imperative for sustainable national development,” he stated.
Beyond the economic implications, the former minister who linked housing insecurity to national security argued that inadequate housing not only perpetuates socioeconomic inequality but also directly activates civil unrest and influences migration patterns. A significant housing deficit ultimately leads to high unemployment rates, rising crime rates, and increased poverty. Providing decent housing is a critical solution to insecurity.
Professor Gana further advocated the decentralisation of infrastructure management, urging states and local governments to be empowered to provide housing solutions.
“May I advocate for decentralisation of infrastructure management by empowering federation units to provide basic needs like housing. Top-down solutions are not suitable for a challenge of this massive scale. We must do our very best to ensure every citizen has access to decent, affordable, and suitable shelter, homes that serve as foundations for dignity, security, and prosperity,” he said.
In his remarks, former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, represented by Professor Suleiman Bogoro, underscored the need to “prioritise affordable housing, sustainable urban planning, and inclusive development.
“We must work collaboratively to ensure that our housing policies are not only effective but also equitable and beneficial to all segments of society. The future of Africa’s housing sector depends on our collective ability to innovate, invest, and implement solutions that meet the needs of our growing populations.”
Also speaking, national programme officer for United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) Paul Okunlola observed that the continent of Africa is in desperate need of effective and enduring housing solutions that can adequately close the widening gap between the rapidly rising populations in need of decent but affordable housing and enhance the capacities of existing housing delivery systems to meet their needs.
He said, “Indeed, the numbers speak for themselves. Today, an estimated 2.8 billion globally (about one-third of the World’s population) do not have access to safe, affordable, and adequate housing, thereby limiting their enjoyment of basic rights, including the right to work, health, social security, education, and many others.
“Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen unfortunately many of the factors driving this housing delivery gap are well known in Nigeria, including among others conflict and climate-induced displacement, the commodification of housing fragmented policies and uneven/inconsistent approach to implementation of strategies in Nigeria, for instance, the dearth of critical data, such as the precise scale of the nation’s housing deficit and absence of evidence-based needs and affordability data remains major limitation to sustainable public housing programmes and viable private initiatives. ‘As it has been said, “if you can’t measure it, you cannot fix it!”
To this end, he underscored the need to “rethink urban policies, land use, legislation and financing to prioritise housing and basic services as key drivers of climate action and sustainable development.”
