By Emmanuella Opara | October 20th 2026
KEY POINTS
- Delegates from African countries have expressed interest in adapting Nigeria’s Renewed Hope Housing public-private partnership model.
- The programme aims to deliver 100,000 housing units across selected cities through partnerships with private developers.
- Government-backed financing and risk-reduction measures are designed to lower costs and improve affordability.
- The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission says the model attracted interest at a continental PPP forum attended by representatives from 36 countries.
MAIN STORY
African countries are exploring Nigeria’s Renewed Hope Housing public-private partnership (PPP) model as a possible approach to expanding affordable housing delivery across the continent.
The Director-General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Dr Jobson Ewalefoh, presented the model at the Second Forum for Public-Private Partnership Units in Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
According to a statement issued by the commission’s Acting Head of Media and Publicity, Ifeanyi Nwoko, the forum brought together delegations from 36 countries to examine how PPP arrangements could support social infrastructure, including housing, healthcare, education, sanitation and water supply.
The event was co-organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank and the African Legal Support Facility under the theme, “Making Social Sector PPPs Work: From Policy Ambition to Effective Service Delivery”.
Nigeria was among five countries that presented projects during the forum’s project clinics, alongside Malawi, Kenya, Djibouti and Côte d’Ivoire.
Ewalefoh said the Renewed Hope Cities programme was designed to deliver 100,000 housing units in selected cities through a joint venture concession arrangement with private-sector partners.
“The beauty of this PPP structure is that it is not the conventional PPP. In this case, the private party owns the land, has the design, is financing it and is doing the construction,” he said.
He explained that the Federal Government’s role was to reduce project risks and facilitate investment rather than directly finance construction.
“The PPP here is that government agreed to de-risk the project,” Ewalefoh said.
He identified high commercial lending rates, which he said exceeded 23 per cent, as a major obstacle to affordable housing finance in Nigeria.
To address the challenge, the government introduced measures to support financing and create demand for the houses. These include identifying middle-income federal civil servants as prospective buyers, committing to access roads to semi-urban project sites and facilitating about $19m in single-digit-interest funding through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
A further $20m in concessionary loans was made available through the Family Homes Fund, while prospective homeowners were expected to benefit from reduced mortgage rates through an approximately $112m MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund.
Ewalefoh said the government also negotiated sale prices with the developer to keep the houses affordable and restricted purchases to one unit per buyer to discourage speculation.
According to him, the measures had reduced the effective cost of the project by about 30 per cent.
He said approximately $39m in concessionary funding was helping to unlock a project with a construction cost of about $125m in private-sector investment.
“The government does not need to finance housing capital projects. It can crowd in private capital through policy, land availability and off-taker facilitation to create a replicable, scalable model for housing delivery,” he said.
The ICRC said the Nigerian model generated interest during the forum’s question-and-answer session, with delegates seeking details on how its risk-reduction measures could be adapted to their national housing programmes.
Participants also discussed the use of off-taker arrangements and concessionary financing to attract private investment while keeping housing costs within reach of intended beneficiaries.
THE ISSUES
Affordable housing projects can be difficult to finance where borrowing costs are high and buyers cannot afford prevailing mortgage rates. Nigeria’s model seeks to address these constraints by combining private-sector construction and financing with government-supported measures intended to reduce risk and improve affordability.
The approach also illustrates the challenges involved in social-sector PPPs, where revenue from users may not be sufficient to cover the cost of private investment. Concessionary loans, identified prospective buyers and infrastructure support are among the measures used to make the projects more viable.
Whether other African countries can adopt the model will depend on their financing arrangements, land policies, housing demand and capacity to implement similar risk-sharing mechanisms.
WHAT’S BEING SAID
“The beauty of this PPP structure is that it is not the conventional PPP. In this case, the private party owns the land, has the design, is financing it and is doing the construction,” Dr Jobson Ewalefoh, Director-General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, said.
“The government does not need to finance housing capital projects. It can crowd in private capital through policy, land availability and off-taker facilitation to create a replicable, scalable model for housing delivery,” Ewalefoh said.
WHAT’S NEXT
The ICRC said discussions at the forum provided an opportunity for participating countries to examine how Nigeria’s approach could be adapted to their local conditions. Delegates also exchanged experiences on PPP project design, risk allocation and implementation challenges.
BOTTOM LINE
Interest from other African countries places Nigeria’s Renewed Hope Housing PPP model among the approaches being considered for expanding affordable housing. Its wider adoption will depend on whether governments can reproduce the financing support, risk-sharing arrangements and affordability measures that underpin the programme.
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