Town planners have decried the low budgetary allocation to the physical planning sector in the 2024 appropriation law.
The President, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners(NITP), Nathaniel Atebije, lamented that the ministry of Housing and Urban Development was given an envelope of N99.92 billion with a recurrent expenditure of N2.99 billion and capital expenditure of N96.99 billion, describing it as low.
Speaking recently in Abuja, Atebije said despite the low budget, the ministry’s total project volume amounts to 483 consisting of 138 on-going and 345 new projects.
He said: “The financial appropriations tagged “Renewed Hope Budget” proposed an expenditure of N27.5 trillion consisting of Capital expenditure (31.6 per cent), recurrent (36.1 per cent), debt servicing (30.0 per cent) and others (2.2 per cent) with the total deficit of N9.18 trillion.
A breakdown of the budgetary expenditure estimates showed that the Defense and security sector has the largest share of the total (12 per cent), followed by sectors others such as Education (7.9 per cent), Health (5 per cent), Infrastructure (5 per cent), and Social Investment (2 per cent). Generally, little attention has been given to physical planning in the national budget.
“The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development was given an envelope of N99.92 billion with a recurrent expenditure of N2.99 billion and capital expenditure of N96.99 billion. Its total project volume amounts to 483 consisting of 138 on-going and 345 new projects.
“In our analysis, we found that the top five priorities include construction of two major housing programmes and construction of Federal Secretariats in Abia, Ebonyi and Kebbi States. It still indicates lack of priority for physical planning as even the few mentioned are remedial projects to address problems already created (such as slum upgrading, urban renewal, etc) due to lack of planning.
While commending President Bola Tinubu for unveiling a housing programme tagged Renewed Hope Cities, Atebije described the programme as lofty, gigantic and may possibly be beneficial to Nigerians.
He, however, said “there are still some puzzling questions that agitate our minds to ask if the houses are built, are they intended to increase the numerical strength of the nation’s housing stock or to make dwelling units available and affordable to vulnerable and underprivileged Nigerians.
“These are the people that are homeless and are crying for safe shelter each day. Further to this, there are some basic and fundamental technical processes for such a project to undergo before construction commences, especially in a city like Abuja. These include submission of development proposals for technical and public scrutiny by stakeholders, submission of environmental impact assessment reports and development permits from the development control department. These are contained in sections 28 to 33 of the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Act CAP. 138 LFN of 2004.
“We want to observe that good intentions prosecuted through infractions on extant laws (as in this case) may be indicators of procedural short-circuiting in physical development, which will produce a dysfunctional environment in the long run. We already have Gwarimpa on our shoulders as a prospective slum of the future; we cannot afford to create another in the same city.”
He observed that leaders must understand that all the problems in and around Nigeria are tied to the amount of land “we have and the use we put them into.”
He commended the Management of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for the recent policy on the need for educational institutions to have approved physical development master plans before benefiting from the agency’s intervention programme.
Atebije said this will go a long way in ensuring sane, rational, sustainable and cost-effective developments in tertiary institutions.
He further implored other public and private institutions to embark on preparing physical development plans through qualified and certified town planners before they carry out such developments.
