NEC Retreat: Fixing Nigeria’s Housing Deficit – By Arnold A. Alalibo

Posted by admin Arnold Alalibo, Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016

By Arnold A. Alalibo | NNP | May 3, 2016 – The Federal Government recently organised a two-day National Economic Council (NEC) retreat on March 21 and 22, 2016 in Abuja. The retreat was organized following Prof. Wole Soyinka’s call on President Muhammadu Buhari to hold a national economic summit to address the nation’s ailing economy. The retreat provided a forum for indebt discussions to stimulate the economy. In his keynote address to mark the formal opening of the event, President Buhari took participants through random policy projections in four selected sectors which included agriculture, power, manufacturing and housing. During the retreat, the president specifically highlighted challenges in the housing sector. He lamented Nigeria’s housing deficit which he put at 16 million units. Some experts have, however, put the housing shortage in Nigeria as at 2005 at between 12 and 15 million.
According to them, the federal government, in 1999, planned to construct 409,227 housing units. But because of failure of implementation, that figure rose to 783,042 units in 1995, 1,333,176 units in 2000, 1,543,318 units in 2003 and 2,171,603 units in 2010. The development is grave as the housing sector has consistently recorded poor showing. For example, out of the 202,000 housing units target in the 1975-80 rolling plan, less than 15% was achieved. Similarly, in the 1979-83 civilian rule, about 40,000 units were to be constructed annually nationwide, but the achievement rate was 20%.
With a projected population of about 170 million people, the provision of affordable housing is an issue of national significance. The housing-for-all initiated by past military administrations fell far short of target. Given the estimates of the Federal Housing Authority, new housing construction at the moment is put at 10,000 which some analysts consider abysmally low. The drive towards “housing for all’’ as enshrined in the National Housing Policy has remained illusory and a mere paper talk. Successive efforts to meet the target have failed consistently as housing deficit now stands at between 16 and 19 million units.
The target date for accomplishing the ‘’housing for all’’ goal was 2000 ((precisely 16 years ago) and while the objective remains unchanged, a new deadline for consummating this national goal has not been set, despite its inclusion in late President Umaru Musa Yar A’dua’s seven point agenda.
Nigeria has been bedeviled with housing problem for decades. A major challenge over the years is the misconception that housing simply means putting a roof over one’s head. It goes beyond that. Housing is so critical that it is an integral part and a major driver of a nation’s economy. For example, in Nigeria, housing constitutes about three percent of the rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But in more advanced countries like the USA, Britain and Canada, the sector constitutes between 30 and 70 percent of their GDP. When a nation is confronted by unemployment and poverty, there must be a sector of the economy that has been ignored and housing is one of them.
It is evident that government has not taken a panoramic view of that sector. There has to be a target to increase productivity in that part of the economy. If housing is properly driven, it may solve other problems like insecurity, unemployment and disparity in income gap. Some Nigerians have linked the endemic corruption in the country to neglect of this sector. Housing constitutes one of the fundamental human rights enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. But that section of the constitution is observed in the breach than it is complied with. The right to housing exists in different components which includes the right not to be evicted without due process.
Statistics have revealed that Nigeria is the worst violator of housing rights globally. For instance, over two million people have been evicted from their houses forcibly in different parts of the country since 2000 through the use of bulldozer. This has further compounded housing predicament in the country.
The housing sector has performed woefully and has failed to utilize the opportunities that exist in the housing market. There are openings waiting to be tapped, but the government alone cannot fill the gap hence the need for private sector involvement. While some experts see the need for private sector involvement in housing, others state that private hands have been involved in the sector for a long time, but observe that the housing units produced by the private sector are usually out of the reach of low income earners.
Although this prompted the incursion of the federal government into the housing market, the performance of the government has been a failure. Access to housing units produced by the public sector is influenced by the government allocation policy, which often discriminates against the low income households. Both the federal and state governments including parastatals have attempted to provide low cost houses, but with limited success, and this is largely because of the half-hearted, politicized approach to the issue. Most low cost housing schemes in the country were built for Nigerians by the military. In our several democratic experiments, politicians have often played politics with housing delivery hence its failure.
Given the vast wealth of the country and the unprecedented pace of urbanization in the last few decades, every Nigerian deserves decent and affordable housing. The consequences for failing to do so are grave because without affordable housing, the provision of other amenities is greatly at risk. The question is: how can government’s plan to provide affordable houses for Nigerians work? Since housing is on the concurrent list, the first step is for all tiers of government to stop paying lip service to the sector and put it top on their agenda by formulating policies on cost-effective housing for Nigerians.
Secondly, the introduction of a massive house-building programme that will increase the volume of accommodation in the country is another recipe for the housing crisis. Also, the problem of affordable housing cannot be resolved if the constraints imposed by the Land Use Act is not removed. The Act hinders mortgage financing and creates obstacles to private sector involvement in the housing industry. The Act has also fuelled difficulties in obtaining Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), which has been a big time avenue for corruption. Again, the failure of mass housing in Nigeria can be attributed to the refusal of banks and financial institutions to be involved in the housing business through adequate financing. Therefore, procedures and processes have to be established for banks to deploy loans that are meant for mortgages which they often divert.
Government has to look at the resources the country possesses and determine how they can be utilized in the housing sector. This will stem the frequent importation of foreign materials into the country. Similarly, indigenous construction firms need encouragement to compete with construction giants like Julius Berger etc. The inclusion of housing as an item for deliberation at the NEC retreat indicates that the present administration appreciates the need to turn the housing industry around. It must therefore go beyond the usual talk shop and paper promises that have characterized and bugged the sector and brace up with the challenge.wp_posts