The provision of affordable mass housing has remained a daunting challenge in many developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. The problem was so acute that the United Nations (UN) made a declaration of ‘housing for all by the year 2000.’ Nigeria and other countries imbibed this vision and used it to guide their housing policies. Many decades after, it is regrettable that affordable mass housing has remained an intractable challenge in these countries.
Although the federal and state governments have come up with bold initiatives to address the nation’s mass housing challenge, there are fears that millions of Nigerians may not own a home due to rising prices of building materials, inflation and sliding value of the naira. However, the problem is more acute in the urban areas than in the rural areas where people still use local building materials.
The matter is further worsened by the fact that we import most of the building materials used in the country. Most of the houses built by private developers are so costly and beyond the reach of average wage earner. Even with the new minimum wage of N70,000 per month, many civil servants may not afford a decent housing. This can explain why houses in many estates in Abuja, Lagos and other urban cities are unutilized.
While affordable housing is one of the programmes of the federal government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, its promise to deliver 20,000 affordable housing units nationwide in the first phase of its housing programme is commendable. However, it will hardly address the nation’s rising housing challenge. Therefore, the government should keep its promise of scaling the figure to hundreds of thousands to be able to give Nigerians affordable housing in the next few years.
With estimated significant housing deficit of about 28 million units, government should aim at building 700,000 units annually in the next 20 years to bridge the housing gap. This will require an investment of about N59 trillion to achieve over that period. There is no doubt that rapid urbanization, population growth, limited housing supply, poverty and rising cost of living have jointly exacerbated the problem.
Not quite long ago, the World Bank projected that Nigeria, with an estimated population of 223 million, would be 262.9 million by 2030 and 401.3 million by 2050 and thus become the third largest country in the world. This will worry our leaders and policymakers and jolt them to pragmatically address the housing challenge. We believe that the state and local governments should complement the federal government’s efforts in resolving the mounting housing problem. Let them borrow the Lateef Jakande template in providing affordable housing to Nigerians.
At the same time, the high cost of acquiring land in urban areas and reliance on imported building materials and fluctuating exchange rate have compounded the nation’s mass housing challenge. Moreover, our mortgage system is still evolving. Its lack of accessible and affordable mortgage options has not helped Nigerians in purchasing homes.
To bridge the rising housing deficit, the government at all levels, private sector and other stakeholders should invest heavily in the housing sector and evolve innovative solutions to ensure that Nigerians have access to affordable housing. Other countries have done it. We can also achieve it. Let the federal government do everything possible to bring down the cost of building materials and enhance access to mortgage financing. It should also reduce the bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with housing in the country.
As we had stated in our earlier editorial, the Land Use Act of 1978 and the FMBN Act and other laws impeding mass housing must be reviewed forthwith. In fact, all impediments to affordable mass housing should be dismantled before the government can achieve the lofty goal.
Unfortunately, only 10 per cent of Nigerians who wanted to own a home could afford it, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data. In the United States (US) 72 per cent of the population could own a home effortlessly and in the United Kingdom (UK), 78 per cent of the population could equally do so.
Sadly, Nigeria is far behind some other African countries with affordable mass housing. In all, the federal and state governments should be more committed to providing Nigerians with affordable housing. Let them muster the political will to ensure that the goal is achieved.