Hope renewed or shege multiplied?

Tinubu’s housing project might not be necessary

Jan 17, 2025

Happy Friday, Big Brains. The devil tried me, and he failed yesterday. Tell me why my phone screen broke on the 99th day of January after all the rants I’ve been ranting. I had to buy bread and akara to find the strength to cry. Again, I hope you’re having a better day.

- Margaret

Word count: ~ 1, 000
Reading time ~ 4 mins

Let’s get into today’s edition:

Housing Minister is just as confused as you are about Tinubu’s housing project
Your internet subscription budget might go up by 60%

The Big Deal

Nigeria’s Housing Minister is just as confused as you are about Tinubu’s housing project

One thing President Tinubu will preach is his Renewed Hope Agenda. But does the agenda ever agend? That’s a question even the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Yusuf Abdullahi-Ata, couldn’t answer at the budget defence session held at the Senate on Wednesday, January 15.

For extra context, two major housing projects have been chopping all of FG’s money. One is the National Housing Programme, which reportedly makes home ownership affordable in 34 Nigerian states. Then there’s also the Renewed Hope Agenda Housing Scheme, which basically claims to want to do the same thing.

At the budget defence session, members of the Senate were trying to figure out what was going on with the implementation of Tinubu’s housing project and how it differed from the federal government's National Housing Programme. But they didn’t get any real answer because the Housing Minister said - “I am still yet to understand the difference between the two.”

And no, he wasn’t even trying to be funny. The poor guy was just genuinely confused, but some of the lawmakers didn’t find his confusion funny, seeing that the Renewed Hope Housing project operates with an annual budget of ₦500 billion, an amount you don’t mess with unless you know what you’re doing. See why it makes no sense if the Renewed Hope National Housing Scheme does the same thing the National Housing Programme claims to be doing.

Senator Abdul Ningi, a lawmaker, didn’t bother to hide his scepticism about Tinubu’s housing project. He questioned whether the Nigerians it claims to be helping even knew it existed. Another lawmaker took it personally, and the session turned into a mini-drama before peace was restored. The budget defence was eventually postponed because the Minister of Housing “wasn’t prepared”.

Why is this a big deal?

We’d talk more about the 1,001 reasons why a minister shouldn’t be caught dead, saying that he doesn’t know the difference between two heavily funded projects, but let’s talk about the projects in question first.

Under the Buhari-led administration, the National Housing Programme had ambitious goals – lift 1 million Nigerians out of poverty and make housing affordable. The one-bedroom apartments under the wings of this programme were priced at ₦7 million to ₦9 million. You’d agree that this is quite expensive for the target audience and if the programme hit the goal of lifting 1 million Nigerians out of poverty, they must have been dragged back to the trenches because Nigeria’s poverty rate has risen significantly since then.

President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Housing project came through with similar goals and a more expensive price tag, with one-bedroom apartments going for ₦9 million to ₦22 million. We did the quick math so you won’t have to – since the national minimum wage is ₦70,000, it will take the average Nigerian saving every penny of this wage for roughly 10 years and 8 months to afford the ₦9 million unit while it will take about 26 years to pay for the ₦22 million unit.

Both housing projects promote the idea that they are for all Nigerian citizens, but about 56% of the country’s population need to pay off debts for 10 years to afford any of the units.

Now, why do we have two similar projects that are not working? If the minister couldn’t answer, then we’re most definitely cooked.

Nigeria is in the trenches financially; every naira counts. Education and healthcare, which should be the top priority for every nation, are still not getting much love, yet, the Tinubu-led administration is pouring billions of naira into these two projects.

Again, it’s giving Renewed Shege.

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Your internet subscription budget might go up by 60%

Not to be prophets of doom, but you might want to consider upgrading your current data plan to a larger one while you still can because the tariff hike drama is starting to feel more real.

Remember when the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, told the public that telecommunication companies are asking for a 100% tariff increase? (If you can’t remember, you’re either getting old, or you don’t read The Big Daily enough.) Well, Tijani has confirmed that they are now looking at an increase of 30% to 60%.

Again, we did the quick math for you (you’re welcome). If your current monthly data plan costs ₦3,000, a 30% increase would bump it up to ₦3,900, while a 60% increase would bring it to ₦4,800. Now imagine the operators had their way with a 100% hike—that same ₦3,000 plan would have gone up to ₦6,000. Tijani’s proposed range, while still a major increase, feels like a lesser evil in comparison.

For context, data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that about 80 million Nigerians rely on internet services daily, meaning even a slight increase in tariffs could send some Nigerians off the internet.

We still don’t know for sure when the hike will kick off or what percentage the minister and telco operator are settling for. This seems like a battle where all parties involved will have to meet in the middle.

Good luck to all of us!

This Week’s Big Question

“One-way ticket to Canada or 24 hours with Tinubu?”

Uchenna’s response - “I will accept a one-way ticket to Congo sef. What would spending 24 hours with Tinubu do for me if all the cries of Nigerians have fallen on deaf ears and things keep getting worse. Meanwhile, the President keeps rolling out ridiculous policies and statements everyday.”

You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting Uchenna’s , we’ll feature it in the next edition.

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