Improving access to affordable housing

Shelter is one of the basic needs of man and the idea of affordable housing to cater to this need is both practical and viable. According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–Habitat), 30 per cent of the world’s urban population resides in slums with deplorable conditions, where people suffer from several deficiencies, including lack of access to improved water, absence of sewage facilities, living in overcrowded conditions, and in buildings that are structurally unsound.

There are conflicting figures about Nigeria’s housing deficit, but experts often quote between 17 and 21 million. Affordable Housing refers to housing that addresses the needs of the low-income earners in the society. This is the section of the society whose income is below the medium household earnings and the majority of masses of Nigeria belong to this category.

With over 170 million people, Nigeria, the most populous country in black Africa, has a population of over 70 million low-income people.

Recently, a minimum wage of N30, 000 was approved for the Nigerian worker, while the disposable income of majority of the fresh graduates (not the ones employed in blue-chip companies) is less than N60, 000 per month.

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Affordable housing has remained elusive to the average Nigerian, in spite of numerous programs to tackle affordable housing challenges in the country. The low and middle income earners especially, are the most affected by this. Due to affordability, they live in densely populated or informal ‘slum’ areas. The high income earners, 1% of the population, occupy a small percentage of the housing stock.

Therefore, the majority of newly built homes in city centres are left unoccupied. Thus, the problem of affordable housing remains a critical issue in the socio-economic wellbeing of Nigeria.

In view of the above, some steps to alleviating the problems of affordable housing delivery include concentrating on ways to provide the enabling environment for mass housing production. Basic building materials should be given tax and duty relief and government could develop incentives to encourage both the public and private sectors to use indigenous building materials.

Other strategies may include granting tax holidays to developers and providing free land to them to reduce the cost of producing houses.

Sites and service plots could be provided to private sectors, housing cooperatives, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) and individuals. Plots could be allocated at different rates per square meter for different uses. The low-income earners should have the lowest rate with the size of each plot not more than 150 square meters. The basis of allocation should strictly be one man one plot, members of (REDAN) should be encourage and motivated with tax incentives, subsidized building materials and discounted rate per square meter.

Plots allocated for affordable housing schemes must not be fraudulently used for medium or high income housing projects. There should be sanctions and strict penalties for violation of terms and conditions stipulated on the letter of allocation.

Until we are able to provide housing that artisans can afford, that is when the people would say that there is affordable housing for the common man. With that, low-income earners would have some housing units targeted at them.

Daniel Ighakpe

Abuja