In the past year, the Nigeria housing sector fared badly. This is because countless houses were destroyed and many people displaced, thereby worsening the housing crisis in Nigeria. Poorly built houses collapsed and many houses including business premises were gutted by fire. Insurgents destroyed more houses in 2018 especially in the north-east and north-central. Farmer-herder clashes in Adamawa, Benue, Plateau and Taraba States drove many away from their homes. Large scale flooding compounded the problem.
Above all, the poor economic performance messed up efforts by investors in the real estate. The lull in the real estate sector caused down-time as there were not many jobs for contractors and professionals. This report captures some of the reported happenings that terribly affected housing in 2018:
Falling down of buildings
Numerous buildings collapsed in the year. A notable incident of building collapse was reported on 19 Nov. A seven-storey building under construction collapsed at the Government Reserved Area (GRA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State where scores were killed.
Also, a four-storey building under construction in Jabi/Utako district of Abuja collapsed on the 17 August 2018. A similar incident took place at Gwammaja in Dala Local Government Area in Kano state. On 17 October, a two-storey building collapsed in Okpuno, Nnewi North Local Government Area, Anambra State.
Unprecedented fire incidents
Property worth over N28.7billion were lost to various fire disasters nationwide in the year 2018, Public Relations Officer of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) DSF Anani Danlami said.
A single fire incident led to the loss of over 100 houses and 100 shops at Abule-Egba and Agege areas of Lagos, rendering several families homeless. This followed a vandalised NNPC pipeline fire on Dec 20.
The Kano State Fire Service said fire destroyed 77 temporary shops at Kasuwar Kurmi (‘Yan Gumama) in Kano on 18 Nov.
It was a bleak Christmas for residents of 27 Mabel Street, off Etete road in Benin City as a family of three lost their lives to an early morning fire which razed their building. The landlord of the house, Mr. Egberamwen Nosakhare said the fire started at 2:00am when he saw smoke billowing from one of the tenants’ rooms.
On Monday 19 Nov, 2018, equipment worth millions of naira were also, damaged by fire at the old head office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Wuse 2 area of Abuja.
On Dec 31, 2018, a commercial bus, a transformer, three shops and a residential building were lost to rampaging fire along Nike Road by Penoks Junction in Trans Ekulu, Enugu. The inferno started when a truck discharging liquefied gas at a filling station lost control and hit the dispensing nozzle and ignited the fire.
Two days before the above incident, scores of corpses were gutted by fire at the mortuary section of the General Hospital Enugwu-Ukwu in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra state. The fire caused extensive damage in the building as almost all the corpses in the mortuary were burnt beyond recognition.
It happened on Monday 10th Sept in Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State. Monaco Gas Filling Station on Jos Road went up in flames following gas leakage from its gas plant. The ensuing inferno from the gas tank and gas cylinders killed and injured many people. Painfully, unknowing passers-by on the ever-busy Lafia-Jos Road accidentally got onto the scene and were consumed. Though residential buildings near the gas plant were not badly affected, residents were traumatised and anguished.
Another fire outbreak in Aba market on 18 Nov 8 destroyed 156 shops.
More than 30 offices at the central administrative office of the College of Science and Technology department of Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State, were destroyed by fire.
No fewer than 50 shops were destroyed in the early hours of Monday on October 2nd 2018 in Gboko market in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State.
On Dec 21, 2018, goods worth millions of naira were destroyed by yet another fire that engulfed the Keffi main market (Nasarawa State). Many stores were destroyed as effort to put out the fire fell through. Nobody could identify the cause of the inferno.
A foretold flooding
Flooding was foretold. The Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Sani Mashi stated in July, 2018 that many parts of the country were likely to experience flooding due to a shift in rainfall pattern caused by climate change and it came to pass.
According the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), on October 9, 2018, 1.9 million people were affected by flooding in 2018, a total of 103 local governments across 10 states were impacted by severe flooding. States affected mostly were Benue, Kogi, Niger, Kwara, Anambra, Delta, Bayalsa, Rivers and Adamawa.
Though flood could be considered a natural occurrence, human activities are seen to have also contributed as people erect structures in inappropriate places and cause clogging of the waterways.
The hand of the insurgents
Insurgents, prompted by religious and ethnic differences visited terror on communities in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Zamfara, Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa Sates.
On 17 Nov, it was reported that nothing less than 100 houses were burnt down in Mammanti village in Borno state. Another happened on the 3rd of January 2018 where suspected Fulani herdsmen invaded parts of Guma and Logo Local Government Areas in Benue State which resulted in the burning of huts and houses.
The Nigerian police confirmed that over 95 houses were burnt in Abonong and Zayit villages of Foron district of Bakin-ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State in an attack by herdsmen.
In Borno, 956,453 houses were destroyed by the insurgents, with Mobbar Local Government Area being worst hit, where 101,085 private houses were destroyed. It was noted that 5,335 classrooms and other school buildings were destroyed, with Bama suffering the most, losing 519 classrooms and other school buildings. Schools were destroyed in 24 of the 27 local government areas.
Natural disaster
Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) reported that there was earth tremor in Maitama District of Abuja on Thursday, November 1, 2018. The intensity was about 3.0 on the Mercalli Intensity Scale, which means it was felt indoors and lasted less than one minute. The emergency agency said the residents of Mpape also
felt it.
The agency said it could
have come from the movement of the earth or it could be by the blasting of rocks or mining in the area.
Stifling economy
The general poor economic performance in the country messed up the efforts of investors in the real estate sector. The lull in the real estate caused down-time as there were not many jobs for contractors and professionals. It was difficult for developers to sell their housing stocks because not many could buy or rent them. This caused deprecation of the properties.
A real estate consultant, Mr Omo Aisagbohi lamented that things did not move because of the liquidity crunch, stressing that the real estate sector was the most affected by the economic hardship. The dearth of liquidity in the system, he said discouraged patronage for personal mortgage ownership. He explained that challenges, such as multiple taxation, general import policies and difficulty in accessing Foreign Exchange (forex), among others prevented the sector from providing affordable housing to Nigerians.
A quick look into 2019
This year does not hold any good promise either. Of course, being an election year, there are palpable fears arising from activities of politicians and there followers.
Real estate developers might be afraid that Nigeria’s usually charged atmosphere at times like this might result in violence. Investors are therefore, merely watching.
During electioneering for the 2015 general elections, President Muhammadu Buhari’s party (All Progressives Congress, APC) promised to do a million housing units per annum. Yet getting to end of the administration’s four years, not even a million houses could be counted as product of the government’s intervention in housing. There are no convincing indications that government is fixing housing developmental concerns. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola talks more about power supply.
The budget proposal Buhari presented to the national assembly on Dec 19 plans to spend only N30.04billion on construction/provision of housing in the 2019 fiscal year. The money will be spent mostly under the Federal Government’s National Housing Programme captured as Ongoing Projects.
Though the N30.04bn provision is higher than the N3,598,363,868 voted in 2018 for the sector, it is not clear much difference could be made.
Apparently, government will do more debt servicing. The budget proposal of N8.83 trillion for 2019 proposes N2.14 for debt servicing, meaning Nigeria will spend 24.3 percent of the entire N8.83 trillion budget on debt financing.
Conclusion
Nigeria’s journey to closing a yawning housing gap might not yield huge result because housing losses are really on the rise. Even as people have become displaced for nearly a decade, seasonal flooding and intermittent violent clashes, poorly managed economy and unexplained fire incidents never allow Nigerians to be.
