The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Ahmed Dangiwa, said the Federal Government is addressing Nigeria’s housing shortage through a structured program of urban renewal and slum improvement interventions.
Mr Dangiwa was speaking on Friday at the Africa Housing Awards and Industry Year-end Dinner organized by the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS).
The event brought together government officials, developers, financiers and housing stakeholders from across the continent to examine progress and challenges in Africa’s housing sector.
He said housing can no longer be treated as a peripheral issue, stressing that housing lies at the intersection of economic growth, social stability, urban resilience and human dignity.
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He said: “Around 54 million people across Africa currently live in urban slums, and the continent faces a housing deficit of at least 50 million units, with a funding gap estimated at more than $1.4 trillion.”
Dangiwa warned that Africa’s housing shortage could reach around 130 million units by 2030 unless urgent solutions are accelerated, noting that platforms such as the Africa International Housing Show are essential for advocacy, accountability and sustainable policy focus.
He praised the organizers, saying the awards and year-end dinner were not just a ceremony, but the culmination of a year’s worth of efforts aimed at promoting excellence and inspiring government and industry stakeholders to deliver tangible results.
Speaking specifically about Nigeria, Dangiwa said President Bola Tinubu’s New Hope policy had repositioned housing from an isolated project to a structured national program focused on scale and systems.
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“Nigeria’s housing deficit is conservatively estimated at more than 17 million homes, but we are responding with scale. In the past two years, we have started construction of more than 10,000 homes across 14 states and the FCT. Through our urban renewal and slum upgrading efforts, we have already provided critical infrastructure to more than 150 communities,” he said.
He added that no country can solve the housing problem alone, calling for a continent-wide, coordinated approach anchored by land governance reform, bankable housing finance, strong local building materials value chains, climate-smart construction, and disciplined urban planning.
“Africa’s housing problem must be treated as a productivity problem for the continent,” he said, pledging Nigeria’s commitment to partnership, reform and cross-border cooperation.
Namibia’s Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Sankwasa Sankwasa, also spoke at the event, saying that Namibia faces long-standing housing challenges, particularly the proliferation of informal settlements.
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Mr Sankwasa said around 88 per cent of Namibia’s urban population lived in informal settlements and it was impossible for the government alone to close the housing gap.
He said Namibia has embarked on an aggressive upgrade of its sanitation, water and road infrastructure, while introducing a policy that allows civil servants to use pension contributions for housing construction.
“African problems should be solved with African solutions,” Sankwasa said.
