Addressing Nigeria’s 21st Century Housing Needs
Amidst the myriad of problems facing Nigeria, housing stands out. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2019, only 10% of Nigerians who desire to own a home can afford it, compared to 72% in the United States and 78% in the United Kingdom. This estimate is inadequate for the size of our economy, indicating that only two hundred thousand people can afford a house out of a population of over two hundred million and still rising. This issue is exacerbated because, even with this revelation, governments have not deemed it expedient to declare an emergency in the housing sector of the country’s economy.
The post-civil war housing challenges persist, with no concerted efforts made to address the debilitating homelessness experienced by many Nigerians at the Federal, State, and Local government levels. However, it is pertinent to state that the Federal government and state governments have, from time to time, embarked on the provision of low-cost housing. Still, it is obviously never sufficient, as what they do is merely a tip of the iceberg. Speaking statistically, with a population of over 200 million, Nigeria is the largest black country in the world. According to Rice University Research, Nigerians rank as the highest educated immigrant population in the United States. The country has a huge youth population, unemployed, unemployable, illiterate, and uninformed, especially in the North, which has become a catchment area and recruitment ground for terrorism and banditry laced with religious extremism.
Consequently, the housing problem in Nigeria is undoubtedly a pandemic of immense proportion. According to the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC), more than 28 million Nigerians lack access to decent and affordable housing. The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) estimates that Nigeria will require about 28 million housing units to address the housing deficit in the country.
Olamide Abegunde PMP, Mniqs, Fnimn is the CEO, Rusteve International Limited, a building construction and real estate company.