The Federal Government's Renewed Hope Cities initiative, conceived as a public-private partnership under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has attracted over 100,000 expressions of interest from Nigerians across various sectors. The programme, which brings together the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and a consortium of developers, aims to provide affordable housing for Nigerians. President Tinubu personally broke ground at the onset of the flagship project in Karsana, Abuja, where 2,400 housing units are nearing completion.
A central pillar of the programme is the President's directive to the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) to extend mortgages to contributors of the National Housing Fund. More than 2,000 Nigerians have already benefited from the scheme, with over 10,000 additional applications currently being processed. The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Engr. Dr. Muttaqha Rabe Darma, has pushed a reform agenda prioritising Nigerian workers and the informal sector in home sales and mortgage allocation.
Infrastructure support has followed suit, with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Hon. Nyesom Wike, ensuring government-funded access roads to project sites, with the first phase of the Karsana access road already completed. The Renewed Hope Cities project has moved beyond Abuja, with over 350 units complete in Janguza, Kano, and another 650 under construction ahead of a March 2027 delivery date. In Lagos, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has opened up the Lekki-Epe corridor, prompting developers to begin work on 2,004 units along Monastery Road.
New sites are also underway in Jibi, by Kubwa on the outskirts of Abuja (2,000 units planned) and also in Kagini, Abuja (1,200 units, as phase two), with construction plans in the pipeline for Asaba, Ibadan, Katsina, Enugu, the Sagamu-Papalanto Road corridor, and Port Harcourt. The government has pledged to eventually extend the scheme to every state, with an ambition of housing 100 million Nigerians.
Financing for the Renewed Hope Cities project has come from a mix of private equity from developers, construction and mortgage finance from the FMBN, financing support from the Family Homes Funds and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, and banking support from Keystone Bank Plc, the scheme's sole commercial bank partner. Momentum has also been built up through cooperative societies across diverse sectors.
On September 23, 2026, the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration with Renewed Hope Cities developers, handed over 430 housing units to the staff and cooperative members of NMDPRA in a ceremony attended by NMDPRA Chief Executive Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, the Minister of Housing, the CEOs of the FMBN and Family Homes Funds, NMDPRA executive directors, and Renewed Hope Cities officials.
The NMDPRA experience presents a potentially replicable model for other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), government-owned institutions, corporations, and organised cooperatives seeking practical ways to support their employees in achieving homeownership. Other institutions, including Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and National Revenue Service (NRS), have also committed to providing financial support for their staff and cooperatives members to participate fully in securing their homes.
Key points
- Over 100,000 expressions of interest have been drawn from Nigerians for the Renewed Hope Cities initiative.
- 2,400 housing units are nearing completion in Abuja's Karsana area.
- The programme aims to provide affordable housing for 100 million Nigerians.
