The Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria (AHCN) has said Nigeria’s housing deficit stands at 14.925 million units, while 15.2 million units are said to be substandard as at 2025.

AHCN also unveiled a five-year plan to facilitate the delivery of 740,000 housing units across Nigeria, as it calls for far-reaching reforms to reposition State Housing Corporations as the major engines of mass housing development.

The President and Chairman of the Council of AHCN, Esv. Eno Obongha, announced the initiative on Monday in Abuja while delivering the 2026 State of the Nation’s Housing Address to commemorate World Habitat Day, with the theme, “Adequate Housing for All.”

“The National Housing Data Centre reveals that the country’s housing deficit stands at 14.925 million units, while 15.2 million units are said to be substandard as at 2025,” he said.

Obongha said the initiative, tagged “ERAHOMS 740,000 Mass Housing Initiative,” would target the delivery of 740,000 homes between 2027 and 2031 through direct development, public-private partnerships (PPPs), serviced land schemes, mortgage-backed housing, cooperative housing and private-sector partnerships.

He said the initiative was designed to respond to Nigeria’s growing housing deficit and the increasing difficulty faced by low- and middle-income Nigerians in accessing decent and affordable accommodation amid rising construction costs, inflation and declining purchasing power.

According to him, the housing crisis should no longer be treated as an isolated sectoral problem, stressing that housing is directly linked to human dignity, family stability, economic productivity, public health, education, security and national development.

“Housing goes beyond a mere roof over the head. It is about human dignity, family stability, economic productivity, public health, security and national development,” he said, adding that Nigeria must make housing a central pillar of its economic development strategy.

He also stressed the need for government institutions and other stakeholders to stick to a single, authoritative and continuously updated national housing database, describing the development of the National Housing Data initiative involving agencies including the National Bureau of Statistics, National Population Commission, Central Bank of Nigeria, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Federal Housing Authority and AHCN as a major step forward.

He stressed that housing data should go beyond reports and become the foundation for policy formulation, housing finance, land allocation and actual housing delivery.

The AHCN president further identified State Housing Corporations as an underutilised institutional framework capable of significantly contributing to the resolution of Nigeria’s housing crisis, noting that they already existed across the country and had decades of experience in estate development, serviced land provision and public housing delivery.

He, however, lamented that many State Housing Corporations were operating below their potential due to inadequate funding, limited access to long-term finance, land constraints, outdated laws, weak revenue-generation mechanisms and insufficient integration into state housing strategies. (Daily Trust)