The Honourable minister if Housing and Urban Development, Arc Ahmed Musa Dangiwa has said that the housing deficit in Nigeria has been a source of embarrassment to the nation as it is cramping with the conflicts to an unsustainable figures regarding the conflicting figures.
He said the rent estimate value from 17 million to 28 million has not only been source of embarrassment but has also been hindrance affecting policy making and strategic planning.
He said as a minister of housing and urban development, him and his colleagues are committed to driving this focus on data and the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Amed Tinubu.
"We must work to establish accurate, credible, verifiable, and scientific sound data on housing deficit and the living conditions of Nigerians nationwide.
"I believe that it is time to change this narrative and put certain things into actions to understanding our housing deficit, this is because policies and project that are shared by data are not only more effective but also more accruable and accountable unto the people they serve, if we don't have data we can't even plan for the nation.
"Collaborating with national population commission particularly on the context of national census is a good step to this agenda, the census is a timely exercise that can provide opportunity for well precise and accurate data for nation housing needs."
On his part, while reacting to the minister statement, the President of Real Estate Developer's Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Dr. Aliyu Oroji Wamakko said the minister was right because no government policy can work fine without an accurate data.
He said the minister is taking the right steps in the right direction, and for assuring Nigerians are under the renewed hope that at least Nigerians need a housing data to be able to move forward and be able to know the housing deficit.
"As it is now anybody who is giving you data on housing deficit is not telling you the accurate answer because there is no institution that has compiled this data accurately.
" REDAN is the first to initiate data collection for housing, and we are doing that in conjunction with central bank of Nigeria (CBN)(GIZ) some consultants, Federal ministry of works and housing, Federal mortgage bank, and we have gone far because we have done some questionnaire which was sent to Benue state just to make a test sample of what we want to do. Before you get an accurate data, it involves finance and REDAN doesn’t have such finance to do that, so we shifted the ball game now to National Real Estate Data Collation and Management Programme (NRE-DCMP) for them to shoulder because they have money for research which they are expected to do for the provision of affordable housing which now include getting an accurate data for the country. And we welcome onboard the minister's interested in getting accurate data for the country.
"REDAN is willing and ready to work with anybody who will be able to come up with an accurate data that will make a concrete and dorable policy that will work for our people."
