In the last two decades, Nigeria has made countless housing declarations, investment summits and expos filled with bold promises and foreign city name-drops: Singapore, Dubai, Kigali, Australia. But the real issue has never been ambition, it is execution without structure.

Nigeria is not failing because of a lack of land, money, or ideas. We are failing because institutions responsible for land use, housing development, and access to shelter, are fragmented, underfunded, and often inaccessible to the very people they were created to serve.

Let us move beyond declaration and look at what is actually broken, and what possible ways to merge vision with structure.

The Housing System on Paper

At face value, Nigeria has the framework of a housing ecosystem:

• Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH): Sets policy direction for housing and infrastructure.

• Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN): Manages the National Housing Fund (NHF), meant to provide accessible mortgage loans.

• Family Homes Funds (FHF): Targets social housing, especially for low-income earners.

• Federal Housing Authority (FHA): Tasked with executing mass housing programs.

• State Housing Corporations: Each state operates its own housing initiatives with some being more active than others.

But if all these institutions exist, why is there still a national housing deficit of over 28 million homes? (According to the National Bureau of Statistics)

A System Without Synergy

The issue is not the lack of housing bodies. It is that they don’t work in sync. Most of these bodies are underpowered, underfunded, and frequently politicized. Their mandates overlap, their databases are incomplete. Most citizens are unaware of how to access the schemes, the list is endless. Take the National Housing Fund (NHF) for example: every Nigerian worker earning above the minimum wage is legally mandated to contribute 2.5% of their basic monthly salary to this fund, yet most contributors don’t know how to access it. Why?

The process is bureaucratic

Mortgage conditions are unrealistic for informal earners

Documentation is often difficult to provide

And even when successful, the disbursement is painfully slow.

According to the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF), less than 20% of eligible Nigerians have accessed NHF benefits, and only a fraction of those have received actual loans.

Dead Capital in Nigerian Land

Perhaps the most devastating issue is Nigeria’s broken land system and I present to you, facts:

Ahmed Dangiwa, minister of housing and urban development, at an NLDRP workshop on March 18, 2025, mentioned that over 90% of lands in Nigeria are unregistered. He further stated that the situation has made it impossible for landowners to leverage their assets for economic purpose.

Only 3–6% of land across the country is formally registered.[World Bank, 2020]. That means the vast majority of homes and plots cannot be used as collateral, sold easily, or legally transferred.

According to PwC Nigeria, the country has between $300 billion and $900 billion trapped in dead capital. Properties and agricultural land that hold value but can not unlock financing due to lack of titles and poor land administration.

The Chairman of Nigeria’s Land Reform Task Team, Ugochukwu Chime also said: “There are no formal land markets in Nigeria. Land is traded like black-market fuel, outside regulation, without transparency, and ripe for dispute.”

Now compare this to Rwanda, which digitized its land registry and now has over 90% land title coverage.

At the heart of the issue is the Land Use Act of 1978, a law that vests all land in the state governor’s hands. In theory, it was meant to ensure equitable land distribution, but in practice, it has created bottlenecks, rent-seeking, and near-total discretion over allocations. Worse still, there are 38 different land entities across the country (36 states, the FCT, and federal institutions), each with its own registry system, rules, and fee structures.

But, by examining successful models, we can glean valuable lessons to transform Nigeria’s economy by growing the real estate landscape.

What The World Did Right

In the 1960s, Singapore had a full-blown housing crisis. Rather than rely on private markets, it created the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and funded mass public housing construction. Today, over 80% of Singaporeans live in public housing. Mortgages are digitized. Title processing is nearly instant. Foreign capital exists, but local ownership is protected. Impressive, right?

In 2002, Dubai made a game-changing move, it legalized freehold property ownership for foreigners. That decision unleashed billions in FDI. But what made it sustainable was the structure:

Land titles were digitized

Property rights were enforceable

Real estate laws were transparent

A strong land registry made investing safe. So this was not just about aesthetics. It was infrastructure, governance, and investor trust.

How to Fix Nigeria’s Housing System

It is easy to just copy architectural styles, but adopting the urban systems is what gets the job done. Copying the design of Burj Khalifa does not build an economy, so we should emulate the system that funded it:

Consolidate Housing Governance

Create a National Housing Delivery Authority, an agency empowered to coordinate all housing development, finance, planning, and land administration under one roof.

Digitize All Land Registries

A unified, searchable national platform accessible to banks, buyers, and developers. It must work across state lines, be transparent, affordable, and enforceable.

Reform the NHF for Informal Workers

Allow contributions via mobile wallets or informal cooperatives. Adjust qualification rules to reflect Nigeria’s economic reality: nearly 85% of the workforce is in the informal sector.

Create Real Incentives for Affordable Housing

Tax breaks aren’t enough. Fast-track approvals, land access, and public offtake agreements are what will drive developers toward affordability.

Mandate Escrow Accounts and Transparent Dealings

No homebuyer should pay a developer directly. Funds should be held in escrow accounts managed by independent, regulated institutions. This protects buyers from fraud, ensures that funds are used for actual construction, and builds confidence in off-plan projects. In markets like India, Dubai, mandatory escrow systems has eliminated abandonment and fraudulent developments.

Measure and Publish Results

Housing projects must be audited, not just launched. The number of completed, occupied units should be public data.

Rebuilding Trust, The Real Challenge.

Why are Nigerians skeptical about every new housing scheme?

Because they’ve been promised the world and given white elephants. Because mortgages don’t work. Because land titles take years. Because people have lost savings in fake developments. Because foreign investors leave with profit, but locals remain locked out. Real estate in Nigeria has become a luxury asset class. But in most economies, it is a basic ladder to stability and wealth.

What Comes Next

In Series 1, we diagnosed the problem.

In Series 2, we’ve explored global lessons, broken systems, and bold, possible reforms.

In Series 3, we’ll build a practical future:

What would a truly inclusive Nigerian city look like?

How can we democratize access to housing, create local jobs, and reclaim urban development from elite capture?

UNTIL THEN…

Nigeria’s housing crisis is not theoretical, this one is deeply structural. But the solutions already exist. We’ve seen them in Rwanda, in Dubai, in Singapore, so the question now is no longer if we can build better cities. It is if we’re finally ready to stop mimicking skyscrapers, and start replicating the systems that make them possible.

The time to build better is now.