The provision of affordable and decent housing for Nigerians has been a top priority for successive governments since the country’s independence in 1960.
Unfortunately, observers maintain that for more than five decades, Nigeria has yet to develop an effective and workable housing delivery programme that would enable the country to achieve the goals of its housing for all policy.
In some instances, gigantic housing programmes were initiated by successive administrations since independence but most of the housing schemes remained largely uncompleted.
Besides, in many instances, many Nigerians used up their entire life savings in the struggle to build their own houses.
Historically, one of the most ambitious housing policies in the country was introduced in 1979 by the Shehu Shagari Administration.
Observers note that in spite of the fact the policy involved a nationwide housing scheme, it, nonetheless, failed to meet the nation’s housing requirements due to a number of factors.
Available records showed that between 1973 and 2006, more than 30,000 housing units were constructed by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) as part of measures to bridge the housing deficit.
Statistics put the current housing deficit of Nigeria — a country with more than 150 million inhabitants — at more than 12 million houses.
Industry experts, however, cite the inability of the government to amend the Land Use Act of 1978, which vests exclusive land ownership rights on the governor of each state, as a major factor limiting the actualisation of the housing for all initiative.
They recall that efforts by the administration of the late President Umar Yar’Adua to amend the Act largely proved abortive.
The experts also note that the sales of Federal Government’s property, including government-owned quarters to existing occupants by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, also failed to remedy the situation.
However, observers note that the public-private partnership in housing delivery, introduced by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, has not been able to solve the problem, as most citizens cannot afford the exorbitant cost of the houses built by the private developers.
Mr Gimba Ya’u Kumo, the Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), acknowledges the enormity of the housing challenge facing the country.
He said the Federal Government would require more than N56 trillion to provide 16 million housing units to bridge the housing deficit in the country.
Giving a breakdown of the figure, Kumo expatiated that the 16 million houses would be constructed at a conservative cost of N3.5 million per unit.
“Fundamentally, we need 16 million housing units to bridge the housing deficit existing in the country; providing these houses will cost N56 trillion at a conservative cost of N3.5 million per unit.
“This is a colossal amount, which cannot be funded only through the National Housing Fund (NHF). It requires urgent injection of funds from both the government and the private sector.
“That is why we are exploring offshore funding to boost financing for mass housing, which the nation urgently needs,’’ he said.
Kumo said the new management of FMBN had been pursuing new relationships with some institutions such as the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigerian Navy, the EFCC and the Nigeria Police, with a view to financing the construction of staff residential estates for them through the NHF.
He said the bank had offered to finance the building of 150 housing units in each state of the federation and Abuja for officers and men of the Nigeria Police, making 5,550 housing units in all.
Besides, Kumo said the FMBN was putting in place a pragmatic housing programme for the citizens in spite of some constraints, which included lack of compliance with the NHF scheme, outdated mortgage laws and inadequate funding.
However, there are strong indications that the situation will soon change, as the Federal Government has just approved a new draft policy on housing delivery which is aimed at producing an average of one million housing units annually.
Minister of Information Labaran Maku announced the government’s decision at the end of a recent meeting of the Federal Executive Council that was chaired by Vice-President Namadi Sambo.
He said the new policy, when operational, would provide additional employment and income-generation opportunities in the country.
“Council deliberated on this policy and all of us appreciated the kind of effort, the energy and the idea that went into the policy.
“Essentially, this policy hopes to achieve certain strategic objectives for Nigeria. The first is that it hopes to bring about real mass housing, which this country has been dreaming about for decades.
“This policy emphasises the central role of the private sector, while the government serves as a regulator and a policy facilitator.
“But, over and above this, the policy hopes to drive employment and income generation in the country,’’ he said.
Shedding more light on the new initiative, Ms Ama Pepple the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, explained that the new policy would address housing problems facing of low-income earners and “the poorest of the poor’’ in the society.
She said the policy would also address issues such as houses’ maintenance, slums in urban areas, skills-acquisition centres and disaster management.
“There is one important issue that was brought up during our stakeholders’ forum at the National Council; this is the issue of maintenance because a lot of our people do not have the maintenance culture; when we build a house we just leave it.
“Look at the block of flats in Abuja, I recall a ceremony we once had; we had to go and repaint some of the houses. We don’t pay attention to property maintenance in this country.
“So, we have also included property maintenance in the policy,’’ she added.
All the same, Mr Adeyemi Williams, a property consultant, urged the Federal Government to adopt the social housing scheme to address the problem of housing deficit in the country.
He said the social housing scheme entailed the provision of affordable houses by the government or non-profit organisations or by the combination of the two.
Williams said the key objective of a social housing scheme was to provide accommodation that would be affordable, particularly to low-income earners.
He stressed that rents charged on the scheme’s houses were usually kept low through government subsidy.
The scheme would be governed by a strictly defined system of rent control to ensure that rents are kept low.
“Unlike the private sector in which rents are dictated by the landlord, social houses are allocated to prospective occupants according to needs.
“Each social landlord operates an allocation policy, stating in advance what factors will be taken into account when deciding who gets preference,’’ he said.
Williams said local government authorities or housing associations could adopt the social housing scheme for their housing development programmes.
“A social housing association is an independent and non-profit organisation that uses surpluses to maintain existing homes and finance new ones.
“It is now possible for commercial organisations to initiate and manage social housing projects. Although this is not yet a common practice, it should be encouraged,’’ he said.
Williams appealed to the Federal Government to consider the adoption of the social housing scheme as part of its housing delivery strategies, particularly as there were some housing bills which had yet to be passed by National Assembly.
However, Mr Tunde Makanjuola, another property consultant, holds a contrary opinion.
Makanjuola advised the three tiers of government to reduce the trouble which people often encountered while processing title deeds on landed properties so as to boost investment in real estate.
He, nonetheless, stressed that less than three per cent of Nigerian landlords had title deeds on their landed property.
Consequently, only about three per cent of property owners were paying taxes on their property since there was no way of mounting surveillance on the remaining 97 per cent, he added.
“This means that many illegalities were being perpetrated in transactions on landed property, while the government is being short-changed.
“The proceeds from the taxes levied on property can be used to address the current housing problems facing the country,’’ he said.
Makanjuola urged the government to create a database on property owners to ensure their proper registration and regulation.
“This will help the government to keep track of any transaction on landed property, while reducing problems caused by fraudulent property agents and family land owners,’’ he said.
Makanjuola stressed that property tax was a more stable way of generating revenue than other forms of taxes.
“If the governments can exploit this avenue of revenue generation, it would be useful in efforts to provide the needed infrastructure.
“Also, property owners will be able to exploit the potential of their property to the fullest because the title can be used as collateral to get loans for other investments,’’ he said.
Makanjuola also called for the establishment of a land commission that would be charged with the sole responsibility of formulating policies on land matters, title registration and property development.
Experts, nonetheless, insist that efforts should be made to ease the process of obtaining mortgage loans to fund housing projects.
“If people are given liberal access to mortgage loans with good interest rates, the current housing deficit in the country will be reduced considerably,’’ some of them say.
