Why housing delivery remains a challenge in Nigeria

Housing delivery in Nigeria has been a serious challenge to both the government, private sector as well as individuals despite the efforts put in that direction. It is believed that Nigeria has housing deficit of about 17 million and efforts to bridge the gap by previous governments yielded little result. A couple of National Housing […]

Housing delivery in Nigeria has been a serious challenge to both the government, private sector as well as individuals despite the efforts put in that direction.
It is believed that Nigeria has housing deficit of about 17 million and efforts to bridge the gap by previous governments yielded little result.
A couple of National Housing policies introduced by past governments with the intention of bridging the deficit were either jettison mid-way or not implemented  at all to the detriment of the masses who are helpless in their desire to get shelter.
The past administration of president Goodluck Jonathan initiated the policy of churning out 10,000 houses yearly as part of his transformation agenda but nothing tangible was achieved.
Meanwhile,  the Minister of Power Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola during his maiden briefing said, government would lead the aggressive intervention to increase supply of housing, by undertaking construction of public housing and formulate policies that would invariably lead to private sector participation and ownership to reduce our housing deficit.
Daily Trust however gathered that non-accessibility to land, high cost of land acquisition, high cost of providing infrastructures, bureaucracy in land approval processes, lack of affordable housing finance and non-use of construction professional and absence of professional advice by prospective housing developers are key obstacles to bridging the housing deficit.
An expert in the buuilding industry, Musa Yakubu who spoke with Daily trust on the issues said housing delivery could only be made easy if governments at all levels have the political will to address the above mentioned factorss challenging housing delivery in the country.
  He added that if the leaders continue to follow the same pattern of not implementing housing policy, housing delivery would continue to be a mirage in the country.
Non-accessibility to land
Mr. Yakubu, who is the National Publicity secretary of Nigeria Institute of Building (NIOB), said getting access to land for building construction in Nigeria is a very big challenge because land allocation procedures is bedevilled with so much corruption that only land speculators who are ready to pay huge amounts as bribe get land allocated to them directly from the government. This land is therefore put into the open market and only those who can pay so much and can afford the land from the speculators end up getting the land. This high cost is invariably transferred to whoever that will either rent or buy the property when it is eventually constructed.
High cost of land acquisition
Musa said land is expensive to acquire as it is usually sourced from either the government or the traditional land owners. Either way, land does not get directly to those who need them for housing development. As a result of this, by the time it gets to the prospective developer, the land is acquired at very expensive and exuberant rate that will add up to the cost of the construction which invariably makes  houses expensive and delivery a challenge.
High costs of providing infrastructure
He explained that infrastructure like roads, drainages, electricity, portable water and telecommunications are expensive to put in place in Nigeria. Government is usually responsible for providing this infrastructure but many developing areas across the country lack this basic infrastructure.
For a developer to provide good and habitable housing he will need to provide infrastructure which is quite expensive. Most areas remain undeveloped and anybody interested in developing a house will have to resort to sinking a borehole to have access to portable water as well as buying his own transformer and this naturally  will be transmitted to the final cost of delivering the houses.
Bureaucracy in approval processes
According to him, the process for getting approval for housing development is laced with so much problems that approvals take so long to be granted. In some cases greedy and corrupt approval official deny sincere uncompromising developers’ approval until they have been made to part with huge sum of money to facilitate the approval. This problem contributes immensely to the challenges in housing delivery in Nigeria.
Lack of affordable housing finance
Musa said housing development all over the world required huge finances.  Except for organization that have enough resources to go into housing development, private individuals who depend on their monthly income or their annual lump sum allowances do not have the kind of resources required to start and complete housing projects within a 12 -18 months duration. Because of their level of income a house as small as a 3 bedroom flat can take up to seven to 10 years to develop. Sadly, financial institutions do not provide long term finance for housing development. The lack of housing finance constitute a major problems of housing delivery in Nigeria. The lack of long term funding by available mortgage institution whose primary purpose of existence is to support housing delivery by giving one digit interest rate long term loans has also impacted negatively in housing delivery. This is becauses they contribute only a very small percentage to the housing stock in view of their high interest rates and short time payment term which are never affordable to small and medium income earners.
Non use of construction professional and absence of professional advice
The unwillingness of some prospective house owners to engage and pay professionals is also a major impediment to housing delivery in Nigeria. Most house owners in a bid to cut cost do not seek professional advice on the best approach for their building projects. They are most times ill advised by quacks into venturing into housing projects that fail as a result of poor planning, under costing, use of wrong construction methodology as well as use of poor quality building materials.