Housing (or shelter) is a basic need of man, universally accepted as the second most important, and despite the way it has been treated poorly by various administrations, it remains a fundamental human right, as enshrined in the United Nations Habitat Agenda.
Although there have been continuous conflicts as to the number of housing units needed to bridge the apparent gaps between housing demands and supply, successful government have made various promises and implemented policies towards correcting the tide but only small percentage of successes have been achieved.
All National Development Plans (NDPs) formulated and implemented in the country have recognized the need to provide affordable housing which it geared towards stimulating national economic growth.
Although the First National Development Plan (1962-1968) focused on government staff in the then capital of the country (Lagos) and other regional capitals, the Second National Development Plan (1970-1974) targeted 60,000 housing units with marginal improvement at the end of the period.
Greater projections and stride was made during the Third National Development Plan (1975-1984). The total production target for the period was 202,000 units. At the end of the period, a success of 13.3% was recorded.
During Fourth National Development Plan (1984-1985) period, three schemes were introduced. Under one of the schemes, 2,000 houses units were built in each state annually. The FHA was also projected to construct about 143,000 housing units across the country.
This period recorded a 20% success.
In the 1990-1992 rolling plan periods, about 2,892 serviced plots were provided across various states in the federation. 1993-1995 rolling plans witnessed about 10,474 plots to various categories of citizens.
A proper national housing programme was included in the 1994-1996 rolling plan with the target of constructing 121,000 housing units across the country at the end of the period. Fewer than 2000 of these units were completed by the first quarter of 1997.
N2 billion was allocated to be spent on housing provision in the 1996-1998 rolling plans and over N3 billion was to be spent by the two levels of governments in the 1999-2001 rolling plan.
The government also in 2004 pledged to conduct and fund research related to the manufacture and the use of local materials in the housing sector towards providing 1,000 units per state before 2007. It however gave birth to the 2006 National Housing Policy (NHP) for Nigeria.
The 2006 Policy’s primary goals were institutional change, capacity building, enhanced financial mobilization to the housing industry, domestic production of building materials, and adequate access to land.
Without a set deadline for delivery, it was also intended to remove the obstacles that prevented the country from achieving its housing goals.
The strategy also placed a strong emphasis on private sector involvement in housing finance and investment, and one of the short-term actions it launched was the start of a private sector-led house construction program.
It outlines the private sector’s responsibilities, which include participation in the employee housing program, founding the key mortgage banks, and collaborating with all levels of government to provide housing.
In 2012 National Housing Policy was created to replace earlier housing policies, especially the 2006 policy.
The main focus of the 2012 Policy was the establishment of mass housing with the intention of giving Nigerians access to homes regardless of their financial situation. To accelerate the development of the sector’s infrastructure, it sought to build a million homes a year.
The importance of the private sector and the government acting as a regulator in the housing sector’s sustainable development was emphasized.
In an effort to ensure that every Nigerian has a home, the Policy has also introduced the idea of social housing with the intention of providing housing for low-income earners by creating affordable housing in comparison to luxury homes and by making money available to those working in the unofficial sector.
The 2012 Housing Policy is a solid policy, adjudged to be among the best in the international community, in terms of their contents and coherence, however despite its commendable programs, it only exists on paper because it did not have the desired real-world effects on the average person.
With the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressive Congress (APC) led government promised to amend the constitution and the Land Use Act to create freehold/leasehold interests in land along with matching grants for states to create a nationwide electronic land title register on a state by state basis.
The President also pledged to create an additional middle-class of at least two million new home owners in the first year in government and one million annually thereafter by enacting a national mortgage system that would lend at single digit interest rates for the purchase of owner occupier houses.
Years on, the lack of political will did not allow the National Assembly amend the 1979 Land Use Act which stakeholders, see as a cog in the wheel of development of houses and converting land resources into individual wealth in the country.
However, according to the Special Adviser on Communications to the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Hakeem Bello, within the period of six years for a start, the NHP, by all standards, surpasses any housing programme ever carried out by any administration in the country, not only in terms of its novelty but also its inclusivity.
Still, the government’s implementation of these programs over time has been marked by subpar administration, insufficient budget, insufficient infrastructure amenities, and insufficient housing financing.
Homelessness has increase and so also has slums and squatter settlements (shanties).
Nigeria’s housing deficit is currently estimated at between 17 to 23 million by the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS), and industry experts.
It is obvious that despite government interventions, success in achieving its set targets have continued to remain elusive due to a number of reasons.
Nigeria is plagued with the problem of policy implementation, lack of adequate data to fully articulate the issues facing the housing sector, high inflation which means that often times there is need to adjust project cost which takes time due to government bureaucracy.
Nigeria growing population, lack of adequate regulations of regulatory agencies, politicization of housing issues are also some of the challenges that bedevil the housing sector.
As the housing deficit continue to rise, experts in the housing sectors have called for a change in approach towards achieving any meaningful improvements.
As Professor S. Ibi Ajayi opined, housing deficit is a global problem that is not peculiar to Nigeria, however the nation is laden with a number of anomalies, which, if not sorted out will continue to widen the deficit of the housing sector.
Currently, the nation (both government and private sector) can only produce 75,000 housing units annually, which experts said was a far cry from what is needed to solve acute accommodation shortages among the citizens.
Prof Ajayi added that the widening housing deficit gap is due to the lopsided distribution of income and as such, “a holistic approach has to be utilised in order to address the issues of the housing sector.”
Proffering solutions to the crisis, he said in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) report, “In order to discover the potentials of the housing industry or more appropriately to unlock the housing industry from the corner to which it has been locked up, the following can be of assistance.
“First and foremost, it is necessary to maintain a conducive macro-economic environment which entails the maintenance of low inflation, low interest rates and stable exchange rates. An economy that is dependent on imported goods even for its housing needs will be buffeted by rising cost of materials. If the interest rates charged are generally high, it will affect the payment on mortgages.
“Second, there is need to deepen the housing financial market as and well as liberalising access to it on a long-term basis for all categories of income.
“Thirdly, there is need to simplify transaction costs in all areas of housing such as land allocation, and registration of titles etc. One of the problems of housing is the cost in administrative processing which can be drastically reduced.
“Fourth, it is necessary to make available all the information on the procedure for obtaining financial assistance from all quarters by government.
“Fifth, building materials and others in Nigeria are always very expensive. There is need to ensure that time and money are adequately spent to ensure the availability of locally produced building materials in adequate quantity.”
The challenges and ways to tackle the housing deficit in the country was also a major theme at the 16th Abuja International Housing Show which brought stakeholders in the housing sector.
Stakeholders who spoke during the event agreed that there was availability of policies and programmes enacted by various governments to tackle the problem, but effective implementation had remained a persistent dilemma.
Other stakeholders have also suggested innovations to solving the housing conundrum.
The West African Ceramics Ltd (WACL), a leader in the manufacture of ceramic tiles and marbles in Nigeria, has urged the built environment to adopt the off-site construction method. The Managing Director Bhaskar Rao, said the off-site construction method was modern, sustainable and could boost the housing sector.
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), Oscar Onyema, has said housing finance must match the rapid urbanisation rate before the housing units’ deficit can be addressed.
He said despite the huge potential in the nation’s capital market, it has remained an underutilised facility in addressing Nigeria’s housing gap.
Onyema said Nigeria’s current population of 218 million, with a 10-year average growth of about 2.6 per cent, had fuelled rural-urban migration at 4.95 per cent rate, which according to him, put so much pressure on available housing and other infrastructure in urban areas.
He said, “Nigeria currently faces a severe housing deficit estimated by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) to be about 28 million units.
“Solving this problem will involve creating linkages and the provision of land to property developers through increased availability of finance to reduce property transaction cost.”
He described the financing as the most crucial element in housing investment, noting that its availability determined access to other key inputs such as land, labour, materials and infrastructure.
He further said, “The private sector is the major catalyst of private housing in Nigeria. Capital instruments can be used to drive real estate in developed countries. Nigeria can key into this. The potential of real estate firms and mortgage systems are highly underestimated; they have barely been scratched in Nigeria.”
The fact of the matter is, the housing sector is too important to be left to rot. Worldwide, it is believed to be the bedrock of the economy of most developed nations, an important tool for stimulating growth.
In the advanced countries, the sector contributes between 30 and 70 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Investment in housing accounts for 15 per cent to 35 per cent of aggregate investment worldwide and the sector employs approximately 10 per cent of labour force worldwide.
In fact, it is somewhat baffling why successive administrations in this country have not spent more time addressing housing considering the huge multiplier effects it can have on the general economy.
