HoR C’ttee frowns against converting residential areas to commercial

By Tom Okpe

House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Urban Development and Regional Planning, Rep Awaji-Inombek Abiante, has expressed concern over conversion of residential areas to commercial and industrial areas.

Abiante raised the concern when the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Dr Shuaib Belgore appeared before the Committee to defend the 2024 budget performance and 2025 proposal of the Ministry at the National Assembly, Abuja.

Abiante said beyond Provision of housing, there is need for propper town planning else, it would lead to creation of slums.

He said: “We have raised concerns relative to the conversions of residential areas to commercial and even semi-industrial areas. They come with their challenges. We anticipate that before approvals be granted for such conversions, impact assessment should be conducted.

“You all are aware of the obvious example in Abuja, the There are more estate. It was designed to solve the challenges of accommodation. And as we speak, you know, it has a yearly problem of flooding.

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“We are hoping and believing that even the new estates that have come up and the ones that are going to come up, we should have assessments done, so that we don’t create several problems in attempting to solve problems.

“So, in advancing other estates, we anticipate that the impact of such estates should be comprehensively, assessed before they are carried out.”

He noted that part of the challenge in this regard was an enabling act as it pertains, town planning.

The Permanent Secretary, Belgore said on the regulation of buildings, the Ministry was discussing the necessity of establishing a National Housing Regulatory Authority, which is supposed to ensure standardization.

He however, decried shortage of funds as the budget of the Ministry was slashed from N162 billion in 2024 to N83.7 billion in 2025.

“We feel that this budget is grossly inadequate. Our 2024 budget was halves. If actually we look at it, from N162 to now N83 billion. Of this, of the 83 billion, you can see that the Urban and Regional Development Department is allocated N4.6 billion for different projects as itemized in this bigger document which is before you,” he said.

He further said the Ministry wants to upgrade its slum, upgrading and urban renewal programs across the 36 States of the Federation.