An expert surveyor and president of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Mr Segun Ajanlekoko, in one of his publications entitled: Sustainable Housing Development in Nigeria – The Financial and Infrastructural Implication, has submitted that dramatic increase in population without a corresponding increase in infra-structural development has led to housing problems.   

According to him, the rate of urbanisation in Nigeria has witnessed tremendous increase in the last two decades, and census in the early 50s showed that there were about 56 cities in the country and about 10.6% of the total population lived in these cities.

He, however, disclo-sed that this rose drama-tically to 19.1% in 1963 and 24.5% in 1985, while adding that, today urban population constituted about 30%.

“The rapid growth rate of urban population in Nigeria since the early seventies was mainly due to immigration which is induced by the concen-tration of the gains from the oil sector in the urban areas.
“Given the expected increases in urban popu-lation, the magnitude of housing problem in the country is enormous.

According to the National Rolling Plan (NRP), the national housing requirement is between 500,000 and 600,000 units consi-dering the prevailing occupancy ratio of bet-ween three and four persons per room.
“If this estimated annual requirement was to be provided at an aver-age of N500,000 per unit (rather conservative), the costs would be enormous and indeed unrealisable,” he observed.

The veteran surveyor further posited that the cost of providing housing alone would be between N250 trillion and N300 trillion (excluding the cost of infrastructural development). “This is the macro perspective of the housing problem,” he affirmed.

“This is to say that the government and mortg-age institutions will need this much as capital base to effectively tackle the housing situation.

“The phenomenal rise in population, number and size of our cities over the past few years has manifested in the acute shortage of dwelling units which resulted in overcrowding, high rents, poor urban living condi-tions, and low infrastructure services and indeed high crime rates.

“On the micro-level, it has been observed that house ownership is one of the first priorities for most households and it represents the largest single investment for most (between 50% and 70% of household in-come).

“This observation becomes very significant when it is realised that per capital income in Nigeria has been on the decline as well as the real income of the average Nigerian,” Mr Ajanlekoko, posited.