Abuja – April 5, 2024 From our Stand (107).
Accessible housing continues to be a challenge for an average Nigerian, even with the implementation of numerous programmes by different Administrations. Given the similarity of the situation to other emerging countries, it continues to be a major worry for the socioeconomic development of these nations.
It has been estimated that more than 52% of Nigerians reside in shantytowns, squatter colonies, and informal settlements. As a result, this editorial examines the obstacles to Nigeria’s supply of affordable housing as well as sustainable solutions.
It has been suggested that, an examination of the economic, ecological, social, institutional, and technical aspects of these housing challenges would be the most appropriate way to study sustainable solutions for resolving Nigeria’s affordable housing challenges.
In Nigeria, the delivery of housing is provided by both the formal and informal sectors, houses provided by both the public and private sector are regarded as formal sector housing while those built or delivered by individuals, co-operatives, families or through community development efforts that to not comply to official building standards are referred to as informal sector housing
Houses in Nigeria today, according to the majority of housing provision is executed by the private sector.
Approximately 90% houses delivered in most Locations are by individuals (self-built) and this signifies a high proportion of housing units produced by individuals.
However, housing delivered by organized formal private sector, as well as the state (real estate developers) are highly significant.
In Nigeria, many households in the urban areas are characterized by a mix of of middle-income earners and low-income earners The range of socio-economic classes present in cities echoes the diversity of housing types delivered within Nigeria cities.
This means that people with middle income to the lower income earners live in rented, informal low quality houses, while high income earners occupy luxury houses.
This implies that notwithstanding all efforts made by the Nigeria populace at providing housing through private mechanisms, housing delivery in qualitative and quantitative terms remains a mirage and this is aggravated by the present official standards that are alien to Nigerian culture .
Housing development in some Nigerian states; Edo, Lagos, Delta, Bayelsa, and Imo is limited by local practices which further worsens the engagement of individuals in the process of housing delivery.
This is because of certain demands made by the Community Development Association (CDA) in form of levies. These levies are all informal payments demanded by the (CDAs) from housing developers before they can commence building, in addition to other formal payments made to the appropriate official agency to obtain building permits.
Research reveals that large sums of money are collected from developers before they are allowed to build houses, hence posing a great challenge to housing delivery in Nigeria
While the private initiatives enabled more houses to be delivered, these private initiatives are limited by local practices that have worsened the engagement of some individuals in Nigeria with the house building processes, thereby limiting the quantity of housing delivered within Nigeria.
The Nigerian Government has times without number set out to remedy the challenges of housing delivery within different states in the country, especially by engaging with PPP (Public-Private Partnership) or through Federal Housing Corporations (FHA). Here, deliveries were made of some prototype housing programmes at the state and federal level respectively.
However, In spite of the government efforts in this direction, to deliver on intended number of housing units, the problem of housing delivery remain insurmountable as unimpressive results have been recorded in the provision of housing in Nigeria, despite huge allocations of money to the housing sector in the National Development Plan.
In Nigeria, diverse housing initiatives and programmes embarked on by the federal government to deliver housing for the populace have been saddled with a lot of challenges and has failed to provide the intended number of houses for the people. Again efforts at providing housing for the people through the diverse development plans in Nigeria failed, which regrettable demonstrates the uninspiring attitude of the Nigerian Government in providing housing for the people. The failure of the government in ensuring that formulated policies and programmes shown in the development plans from 1962 till to date are sustained and implemented is one key cause for its failure at delivering houses for the people.
Furthermore, institutions embedded in formal financial mechanisms, has made it difficult for many people who want to build houses to obtain formal form of financing which again limits the peoples effort at constructing houses.
Conclusively, housing shortages in Nigeria for both the middle and low income earners is observed notwithstanding the various housing initiatives carried out by the government.
Also, it has been observed that, most of the Nigerian populace, housed either through rental housing or self-built housing are faced with a lot of housing challenges such as; limited access to land, high cost of building materials, high cost of levies, bureaucratic bottlenecks, institutional problems, enforcement issues amongst others which constrain the delivery of housing in Nigeria.
