Fed Govt To Address Housing, Urban Development Challenges

The federal government has restated its commitment to inclusive dialogue, cooperative federalism, and evidence-based policymaking to address the nation’s housing and urban development challenges.

The minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, stated this at the 14th National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development in Ilorin, Kwara state.

Represented by the director, Planning, Research and Statistics in the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Alhaji Muktar Iliyasu, the minister said the council was the ministry’s highest decision-making body.

Dangiwa notes that the theme of the 2026 Council Meeting was both timely and strategic, reflecting the urgent need to respond holistically to the pressures of rapid urbanisation, population growth, climate change, and the widening housing deficit across the country.

He explained that the Council would engage in a carefully structured programme designed to ensure robust technical engagement, policy coherence, and actionable outcomes.

He said the technical sessions will provide the critical foundation for the Council through exclusive deliberation on sectoral issues, the review of memoranda, the assessment of the implementation progress of previous Council decisions, and the refinement of policy proposals for higher-level consideration.

The minister noted that the engagement of the permanent secretaries will be further examined, harmonised, and strengthened from an administrative and intergovernmental coordination perspective.

He said the climax of the programme would ensure collective adoption of the policy decisions, resolutions, and strategic directions for the housing and urban development sector by the minister and commissioners from across the country.

Earlier, the permanent secretary of the Kwara State Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Alhaja Risikat Balogun, had  said, “As urbanisation is progressing, there is the need to think of a holistic process of reducing the issue of housing deficit.”

In his address, the state commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Dr Segun Ogunshola, said there were many challenges affecting the provision of housing in the state and the country in general.

He said the state government was making an effort to find a lasting solution to the land and housing deficit in the state.

Ogunsola said the 20,000  units of the Kwara smart city would lay the foundation for the next generation of megacities.