The House of Representatives has approved the upward review of the budget of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to N500bn, to tackle housing deficits in the country.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Housing, Ahmed Lere, disclosed this in a meeting with the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, in Abuja, recently.
Dangiwa had called for an increase in the annual budget allocation for housing development to address the huge housing deficit in Nigeria.
Though he noted the transformative efforts of the ministry in the previous year, he decried the insufficient allocation it received.
“In the 2023 supplementary budget, we got N100bn. In 2024, we received approval for about N80bn. This is a far cry from what is needed to make a difference,” he said.
He noted that the government needed to do more to address the housing challenge, which required a minimum of N500bn in additional allocation per annum for the renewed home cities and health care programme. The minister highlighted the importance of housing in creating jobs, stimulating local industries, and improving the local economy.
