Housing policy in Nigeria: Government policies for housing Nigeria's urban poor and the working class: Laudable promises, great expectations, colossal failure

Abstract

On 11 June 1976, delegates from Nigeria and 131 other nations' governments unanimously endorsed 64 “Recommendations for National Action” at the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat) in Vancouver, Canada. These covered six key aspects of the human settlement question: settlement policies and strategies; settlement planning; shelter, infrastructure and services; land; public participation; and, institutions and management. Although most of the Recommendations were radical, the Nigerian government endorsed all of them. Indeed, Nigeria's Report to the Conference contained many promises which emphasised the Nigerian governments' commitment to the activity of improving the housing circumstances of her poor majority. The central aim of this paper is to attempt to examine what these promises were worth and what, after 9 years and 7 months, Nigerian governments have done to implement the Recommendations on “Shelter, Infrastructure and Services”. Since one of the major Habitat recommendations under this section was on the need for national governments to provide appropriate housing and its related services which are within the economic reach of the majority of their people, this paper attempts to analyse in detail the ability of low-income households in Nigeria to pay for government-built dwelling units. The three main parameters of the housing economics equations which I have used to establish this are: the initial capital cost of the dwelling unit; total annual household income; and the annual economic rent. It also examines the gap between the quantitative housing need and the official response; and, the adequacy and reliability of water supply refuse disposal and sewerage facilities. The paper concludes that there is still a very serious mismatch between the people's real needs and priorities and public housing policies aimed at meeting them.