The Executive Director of Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) and Convener of the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS), Barrister Festus Adebayo, has decried the unavailability of housing for millions of young Nigerians.
Adebayo who spoke on Housing TV X Spaces tagged Youths and Housing, on Saturday evening, decried the state of housing in Nigeria, asserting that the government is not doing enough to provide housing for Nigerians, particularly her young population. The foremost housing rights advocate blamed successive governments in Nigeria for the huge housing deficit crisis in the country calling on authorities to revise this trend.
“In the last ten years, Nigeria cannot boast of producing 20,000 houses a year. During the period of the Buhari Govt, the then Minister of Housing, Babatunde Fashola SAN told us in his report that he only delivered 6,000 houses in 8 years and after doing our investigation, only slightly 2,600 houses were delivered. So the figures of 6,000 he gave us included uncompleted buildings. With these figures, you now begin to question our commitment as a country in the area of providing housing for our people.
Adebayo charged developers to begin to factor in young Nigerians when designing building plans and build houses that are affordable and meet the peculiar needs of this segment of the population that accounts for nearly half the population of the country.
“The houses being built by government and private developers are not the ones that the youths can afford. In contemporary Nigeria, we have one bedroom for over 20 million. Where do you want them to get the money to get such houses?
Who is providing studio houses for these young people? Some of them don’t need much, just a place over their head is fine.
Adebayo urged the government to increase the budgetary allocation to the housing sector, provide cheap mortgages and embark on aggressive sensitization on government plans and actions within the sector as he lamented the huge knowledge gap that exists between young people and Housing.
“When the 2025 proposed budget was presented to the National Assembly, at HDAN, we did a press release to tell the govt that the amount allocated to housing in that budget is a confirmation that housing is not on our priority list as a nation. We also reminded them that this is contrary to what they promised Nigeria during the electioneering campaign.
“It is sad that many young Nigerians don’t even know what a Mortgage is, the majority don’t even know how to begin their homeownership journey. Sadly, the housing industry players are not doing enough to capture this market. Let’s not be deceived, young Nigerians have the finance to get mortgages, and most of them earn in foreign currencies. It is something they can do, make land accessible to them and see what young people will turn it to.
To stem the tide of corruption in Nigeria, Adebayo advised the federal government to provide accommodation to Nigeria’s young population and low-income workers through mortgages. “You cannot fight corruption without providing houses for low-income workers and youths. Housing is a form of social security that can drastically reduce corruption.
“If the youths and workers have a place no matter how small a home, the propensity for them to steal a lump sum of money to buy a house outrightly will reduce.
Adebayo called on the government to rejig its housing policy from building to own to building to rent. “The government should develop a rent-to-own model to enable young people to get a place to stay. It is possible. All we need is commitment and dedicated leadership to make this happen. He said.
