The Federal Government has inaugurated a Joint Steering Committee on National Housing Data to solve challenges poised by housing deficits in the country.
The inauguration ceremony was presided by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa in Abuja on Tuesday, August 20, 2024.
Speaking at the ceremony, Dangiwa harped on the role of accurate and verifiable data in tackling the country’s housing challenges.
“Ensuring access to decent and affordable housing is not only a social and moral responsibility of the government. It is also a catalyst for economic development, job creation, and poverty alleviation,” he said.
The minister lamented the lack of credible data on Nigeria’s housing situation, describing it as a national emergency for the sector.
“Without data, we cannot know the magnitude of the problem we are facing, how much resources we need to allocate, for how long, which areas to focus on, which markets to prioritise, and a host of other considerations. In fact, we would be flying blind. This is not sustainable,” he warned.
The newly inaugurated Joint Steering Committee was tasked with developing a blueprint to establish a National Housing Data Centre.
The committee’s membership includes representatives from key stakeholders in Nigeria’s housing market, such as the National Population Commission, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, among others.
“The committee has been established as a strategic partnership among key stakeholders in Nigeria’s housing market, with the mandate to develop and implement a blueprint for ensuring transparency and ease of access to housing data in Nigeria, which will be essential for policy and decision-making towards affordable housing and the well-being of Nigerians”, Dangiwa said.
