By Kingsley U. N Chikwendu
Nigeria’s largest city Lagos state, is known for having one of the most population sizes amongst states in the country. Being the commercial hub of the country and one of the most in Africa, it is arguably the most urbanized state in Nigeria. Most Nigerians see Lagos as their own Paris, New York or Glasgow. It won’t be surprising to see that it serves as the luxury, economic, transportation and education hubs of the country.
As obtainable in the country at large, the state is characterized by inequality of wealth between the rich and the poor, with a smaller number of rich persons and a higher proportion of the poor. As a result, affordable housing is a challenge for urban areas like Lagos. Already, in the country there is a deficit in housing estimated to be over 17 million and counting.
Lagos attracts residents from nearby states and beyond. More than 500,000 persons move to the city every year for greener pastures. Average income earners who may afford a decent accommodation in probably, Lafiya, the capital city of northcentral state of Nasarawa, will struggle to get an affordable home in Lagos with that same amount or may end up living in a slum.
Properties are expensive and owners of them which are known as landlords usually demand for annual, not monthly rent payments. Even the practice of paying a year’s worth of rent upfront which is prevalent in the state makes it even harder for low income earners. As reported by the BBC, middle to high income housing can cost between $5,000 and $40,000 a year. This may be one of the reasons they end up residing in slums where they can afford.
Some big houses even remain vacant because, most of them can’t be afforded. Some can even go a full year without being rented. Some, affording them means one would be spending at least a large chunk of his income to move in because, he would have to pay two years’ rent upfront added with agency and maintenance fees. The person will still be required to spend same large chunk of his pay cheque every year on rent, which doesn’t make sense.
Some have decided to seek other alternatives like using refurbished containers as their homes. As profiled by the BBC, a company Tempohousing Nigeria co-owned by one Dele Ijaiya is thinking inside the box by making homes out of cargo containers to provide a creative solution in a city that desperately needs low-cost housing. This can be constructed within two weeks and is 25% cheaper than the traditional houses.
Truthfully, the best way the government can get Nigeria’s housing deficit sorted is by providing good quality housing at affordable rates. The government cannot build a million homes at a price difficult for an average income earner to afford. It does not make any impact on them.
There are on-going projects of varying scales, carried out by the Lagos State Government meant to address housing shortages in the state; one of which is first of all, to reclaim lands from the Atlantic Ocean to build a new city suburb called Eko Atlantic on the shores of Victoria Island. Tonnes of sand and heavy rock were poured into the ocean to provide 10 sq km (3.8 sq miles) of land for shops, offices and homes.
Protected by an 8km long sea wall, the new city suburb will have its own power and water supply, and even an independent road network. Despite been seen as a multi-billion-dollar project for the rich, builders say Eko Atlantic is aimed at those middle income earners and has the capacity to accommodate more than 500,000 people. Ronald Chagoury Jr, one of the developers and vice president of Eko Atlantic City says it is a perception they have been trying to brush off.
“From the beginning we always thought that this would be a city for the middle income.
“We know that the middle income has grown significantly in the past 15 years and we know that it is going to grow even more”, he said.
In the coming years, the population size of Lagos is expected to double by 2050, according to the UN Population Fund. With such, it puts more pressure on existing limited housing infrastructures.
