The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Dr Muttaqa Darma, has inaugurated a 14-member committee to drive reforms aimed at transforming Nigeria’s built environment and making it a stronger contributor to economic growth.
The committee’s mandate includes coordinating reform measures contained in the validated implementation framework and developing a detailed work plan with clear priorities, timelines and deliverables.
Darma charged the committee to develop practical measures capable of improving the sector while ensuring that all stakeholders are effectively integrated into Nigeria’s built environment.
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“You have been given the task of ensuring that we have a built environment that will be the greatest contributor to the economy of this country,” the minister said.
He said the committee, comprising officials and representatives from key agencies and departments, would serve as the implementation committee for stakeholders’ submissions to the ministry.
The minister gave the committee six weeks to complete its assignment, stressing the scale and importance of the task before it.
“The task is enormous,” Darma said, urging members to pursue reforms that would have a transformative impact on the ministry, the built environment and Nigeria as a whole.
Fast Track Reforms
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry and Chairman of the committee, Dr Shuaib Belgore, said the committee would fast-track reforms requiring consideration by the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly.
He explained that proposals requiring executive or legislative approval must first be properly prepared and presented in a form that would enable the relevant institutions to act on them.
The committee would also identify immediate measures that the ministry and its agencies could implement without waiting for lengthy approval processes.
“These are the short-term wins,” the Permanent Secretary said, noting that the committee would recommend actions and prepare implementation plans for their delivery.
According to him, one of the ministry’s priorities is to establish greater standardisation across Nigeria’s built environment and improve coordination among professionals and workers in the sector.
“We want to have a situation where different working groups, artisans, engineers and architects are in harmony in the way work is done for very efficient service delivery,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary said stronger coordination and common standards would help improve efficiency, professionalism and service delivery across the sector.
Belgore urged committee members to work diligently and deliver a robust implementation strategy within the six-week deadline.
He said the ministry also intends to explore ways of harnessing the housing sector’s economic potential and increasing its contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.
“The housing sector has the capability to really contribute immensely to the GDP of the country,” Belgore said.
The Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Shehu Osidi, commended Darma’s reform initiative.
Osidi said some of the proposals already align with measures undertaken by the mortgage bank.
However, he stressed that effective stakeholder consultation would be critical to achieving lasting results.
The committee is expected, within six weeks, to translate stakeholders’ recommendations into actionable reforms, implementation plans and immediate interventions to strengthen Nigeria’s housing and broader built environment sector.
