Darma Sets Six-week Deadline for Housing Sector Reform Framework

The federal government has begun moves to overhaul Nigeria’s housing and built environment sector, with the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Engr. Muttaqa Rabe Darma, giving a 14-member ministerial committee six weeks to produce a workable implementation framework for sweeping sector reforms.

Darma, who inaugurated the Ministerial Committee on the Implementation Framework for Validated Stakeholder Resolutions on Housing Sector Reforms yesterday in Abuja, charged the team to move beyond recommendations and translate them into concrete actions capable of transforming the built environment.

The committee, chaired by the permanent secretary of the ministry, Dr Shuaib Belgore, comprises officials from the ministry’s technical departments and relevant agencies, and is expected to develop a detailed work plan outlining priority actions, timelines and deliverables.

The minister said the reform process followed a stakeholder validation conference where housing sector players reviewed housing deficit data compiled by the ministry and made recommendations aimed at repositioning the sector.

According to him, the recommendations have been divided into three categories: reforms that can be implemented immediately by the ministry, those requiring approval from the Presidential Council and proposals requiring legislative action.

Darma said the ministry’s responsibility goes beyond direct provision of houses, stressing that it must also create the right environment for Nigerians and private sector players to provide housing.

He identified stronger regulation of the built environment as critical to unlocking the sector’s economic potential, noting that 2025 data from the National Bureau of Statistics put the sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s economy at about 17 per cent.

The minister said the figure remained below the 22 to 27 per cent recorded in comparable economies such as South Africa and Kenya, expressing confidence that effective reforms could enable Nigeria’s housing and built environment sector to bridge the gap and become a major engine of economic growth.

Darma urged the committee to approach the assignment with urgency and determination, declaring: “We don’t know the word impossible, all we see is possibility.” He charged members to produce a robust implementation strategy within the six-week deadline.

Responding on behalf of the committee, Belgore said the assignment was a major opportunity to improve housing outcomes, standardise practices and unlock the sector’s contribution to the national economy. He assured the minister of the committee’s commitment to delivering within the stipulated timeframe.

Belgore disclosed that the committee had received a working document which would be subjected to detailed review to identify gaps and strengthen it into an effective implementation framework. He added that further consultations with stakeholders would be undertaken to secure broad ownership of the reforms.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Shehu Usman Osidi, welcomed the initiative but stressed that sustained stakeholder engagement would be crucial to its success.

Osidi recalled that previous attempts to advance reforms involving the National Housing Fund and FMBN Acts, as well as a proposed N500 billion recapitalisation of the bank, had encountered stakeholder resistance, stressing that lessons from those experiences should guide the current process.

A representative of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), speaking on behalf of its Managing Director who was absent, pledged the agency’s cooperation with the committee and expressed confidence that the reform process would reposition the ministry and the wider housing sector for greater national impact.