From Our Housing Stand (23)
Nigeria’s policies for housing urban/rural poor and the working class have always not yielded satisfactory results. The presence of numerous gigantic exquisite, yet unoccupied houses in our cities is a testimony that we are not treading the right path.
As a new decade begins, housing stakeholders who look back in the past are troubled that Nigeria might roll into yet another decade without any workable/successful housing policy. Of course, housing is a huge task that needs careful and sustained planning over a reasonable period of time. It is therefore imperative that Nigeria develops a policy that can be successfully implemented toward housing the people. Experts describe Housing Policy as a tool that is used in town planning for solving housing problems and consequently for the achievement of sustainable housing.
Nigeria is indeed beset by a huge housing crisis. Majority of the people live in very appalling conditions. Houses are substandard and supporting infrastructure like good roads, drainage, electricity, potable water are non-existent in many communities. Those living in rural areas dwell in poorly constructed houses mainly with mud while those in urban areas live in crowded, run-down housing with social disorganization. These are usually unplanned areas. Even in seemingly planned areas, pockets of slums still exist.
At various times, Nigerian government promulgated policies to tackle the unsightly housing situation. What has remained worrisome however, is whether the policies have really worked as intended. From the colonial time, the concern was to provide accommodation to staff. This culminated in what was then called Expatriates Quarters. There were also places for indigenous staff working for the colonial administration. This era witnessed the creation of Urban Councils in 1946, the establishment of Lagos Executive Board (LEBD) in 1954, the formation of Nigerian Building Society in 1955, as well as the enactment of Regional Housing Corporation in 1959.
When Nigeria got independence in 1960, there was improvement in housing provision. This was propelled by the First National Development Plan of 1962-1968; the second National Development Plan of 1970-1974; and the National Council on Housing in 1971. At this time, government gave loans to public workers to build homes. Then came the third National Development Plan of 1975-1980. With the promulgation of Decree No 7 of 1977, the Nigerian Building Society was transformed into the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) with mandate to provide long-term credit facilities to mortgage institutions in Nigeria. FMBN became the first operator in the Nigeria’s formal institutional mortgage lending sector. It was further made to take contributions from the public in what became known as the National Housing Fund (NHF).
However, since its inception, only a total of 61,193 houses were built through the NHF operations as at January 2012. This represents an infinitesimal proportion of 0.38% of the nation’s current housing deficit. FMBN cites low capital base as its undoing. The bank says Nigeria needs at least N56 trillion to develop a minimum of 720,000 housing units annually to meet its housing needs. One is not sure even 100 housing units are built under NHF annually.
Then came the era of vision. On 11 June 1976, delegates from Nigeria and 131 other nations’ governments unanimously endorsed 64 Recommendations for National Action at the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat) in Vancouver, Canada. Nigeria’s Report to the Conference contained many promises which emphasised the Nigerian governments’ commitment to the activity of improving the housing circumstances of the poor majority. This culminated in the ambitious Housing for All by year 2010. But there was no housing for all.
President Olusegun Obasanjo launched the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy popularly known as NEEDS. A decade ago, Nigerian government came up with 134-page document — NV20:2020 economic transformation blueprint. The blueprint articulated Nigeria’s economic growth and development strategies for the 11-year period between 2009 and 2020. The plans were to privatize the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to compete with other players in the industry in the provision of mass housing; to provide incentives and necessary legal and regulatory environment to attract Public Private Partnership (PPP) in mass housing development; to establish an efficient foreclosure system that will give more guarantees to lenders in cases of default; and to commercialize and recapitalise FMBN to provide a linkage between the mortgage market and the capital market. Some of these plans have not been implemented. Some poorly implemented – leading the country to motion without progress and apparently no significant turnaround in Nigeria’s housing industry.
The Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in 2017 jettisoned Vision 2020 with its launch of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). It was a medium-term plan for 2017-2020, for the purpose of restoring economic growth. ERGP had nothing for housing even as the Buhari’s party at electioneering promised provision of 100 housing units every year.
Different problems have, over the years hindered implementation of housing and economic policies in Nigeria. Difficulty in accessing land, poor administration, inadequate funding, insufficient infrastructure and inadequate housing finance are said be the major bottlenecks. Housing policies are either poorly implemented or completely jettisoned. For instance, in 2014, the housing ministry prepared a roadmap on housing, land administration and urban development, stretching the plan to 2043 and the resources that would be required and the targets that would be met at each stage of the milestones. All this is set aside by the current administration.
Viewpoint Housing News therefore urges government to consider Vision 2020-2030 for Housing. This vision should be specific on Low Cost Housing and government should be serious with housing plans and pursue them diligently. More importantly, there should be provision of low cost houses in urban and rural areas. FMBN should work more with developers who come up with workable plans for low cost housing including use of local materials in building. Shehu Shagari administration was popular because it built many low cost houses across Nigeria. We want this to be a decade of low cost housing.
