Matters arising on Nigeria’s rising housing deficit

Eleven years ago, the United Nations Agency on Human Settlement (UN-HABITAT) declared that Nigeria’s projected housing defi cit was 17 million, and many have reasons to think the fi gure must have increased. PATRICK ANDREW writes

Even if Nigeria’s mortgage system were relatively functional and the majority of people that genuinely want to build or buy their own houses were able to access funds from the mortgage system for that purpose, not everyone could own a house. Of course, the harsh economic recession which translates to scarcity of funds as most businesses are struggling and even governments are unable to pay its staff , makes recession is a crucial factor inhibiting availability of funds to drive other economic processes including property. Besides, were Nigerians to witness a sudden improvement in their earning power and certain level of economic growth, there will still be that spectrum of people who really cannot aff ord to own a house irrespective of social programme to that eff ect.

Even were there to be some forms of social housing, which is meant to shield those without a roof over their head so many may still not be able to aff ord it since the benefi ciaries are required to pay minimal rent or in some cases they are catered for at no single cost for a period. Some countries have adopted the social housing scheme to help reduce the housing needs of the less privileged in the society while working hard to introduce social systems that would facilitate private ownership of moderate and aff ordable homes.

The aim has always been to attack housing defi cit and ensure that considerable numbers have roofs over their heads. In fact, Since 2006 when the United Nations Agency on Human Settlement (UN-HABITAT) estimated Nigeria’s housing defi cit to be in the region of 17 million units, the fi gure has remained unchanged, forcing some to wonder whether that fi gure is still realistic. For instance, former President of the Nigerian Institute of Builders (NIOB), Malam Bala Kao’je, seriously doubted the figure insisting that it could not have remained stagnant especially with spiralling population. He also thinks that the estimate is a mere conjecture since no serious statistical work has been done in recent times to authenticate the fi gure.

Besides, according to him with increasing population it is doubtful the 17 million housing defi cit would remain the same 11 years after the UN-HABITAT declared the estimate. “Many people have been talking about 17 million housing defi cit but I don’t believe we have that amount of defi cit. Left to me, I think we may have far more defi cit than the 17 million that is assumed. We don’t have the statistics of Nigerians above 18 years that want to own their own houses, which important for us to get for better planning. “So the fi gure of 17 million housing defi cit is not realistic. We should have proper statistics of Nigerians who are above 18 years old that want their own houses; whether one, two, three bedrooms or more,” he stressed noting that the federal government would have to come out with the proper statistical record of Nigeria’s housing defi cit.

Last week at the housing conference held in Abuja, the Nigerian Building and Roads Research Institute (NBRRI) faulted the 17 million housing defi cit estimates saying the fi gure is no longer tenable because the population of the country has not remained static. Th e body thinks the fi gure must have increased in spite of the fact that the federal government had introduced several housing programmes not much have been achieved in terms cutting down on housing needs. In fact, NBRR quoted fi ndings by Worldometer, 2017, noted that from 2012 to date, Nigeria’s population increased from 168,240,403 to 191,835,936, meaning that there are additional 23,595,533 people out of which ¾ must need accommodation.

“The housing deficiency has, therefore, climbed and is likely to worsen in the nearest future if urgent steps are not taken by the government in conjunction with all stakeholders to address the problem”, said the NBRR Director General, Danladi Matawal. Further, the NBRR said the World Bank in 2013 stated that in order for Nigeria to keep up with the demand for housing, 700,000 houses annually are required to match growing population and urban migration, but less than 100,000 houses are being built annually in the country. Accordingly, Matawal noted that almost every dispensation since the colonial era has formulated policies to contain the housing situations, but while some yielded some degree of successes; some have failed woefully to make any signifi cant impact in the housing and real estate sector or the country.

Th erefore, he canvassed for a paradigm shift in approach to providing housing in Nigeria from a conventional process-based approach to more compartmentalised and adaptable strategies. The NBRR said the real reasons for poor housing situation in Nigeria, were basically lack of necessary access to fi nance, which the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) was designed to create and assist people to secure. Additionally, the NBRR adduced that legal processes surrounding property and land procurement, access to aff ordable high quality building materials as building in Nigeria is relatively expensive which, in turn, refl ects on high cost paid by end users.

“Conscious and timely efforts are required to adopt strategies that will signifi cantly reduce the cost of building houses and I recommends the provision of affordable housing by harnessing and integrating alternative building technologies and building materials to reduce the cost of building houses in Nigeria. “Building houses are highly capital intensive projects and a bulk of this capital is gulped up in procuring building materials which alone have been estimated to constitute 60 percent of the cost of constructing a building,” he said. Besides the cost implications of undertaking high volumes of construction projects, there is also the sustainability issue, hence the need to consider alternative building materials and technologies that would be substitutes or complimentary to conventional building materials.

He listed conventional building materials as concrete, steel, glass, timber, etc which take a lot of time to produced, cure and assemble and may pose a time challenge. Th e conventional building materials include concrete, steel, glass, timber, etc, many, especially concrete take a lot of time to produced, cure and assemble which may pose a time challenge. These could be replaced with basic alternative materials which are predominantly traditional such as thatch, mud/clay, laterite, gravel, straw, azara and raffi a palm that have been in local production from historic times. Until institutions set up by the governments deliberately strive to make social housing programmes available, access and affordable the number of housing defi cits would remain not only a mirage but contentious even as the common man wallow in severe housing need.

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