The Success and failure Public Housing Policies in Nigeria

The table below shows the summary of the  success and failure of housing policies in Nigeria.

PERIOD PROGRAMME	TARGET	ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL
First National Development Plan(1962-1968)	v Planned construction of 61,000 housing units.	v Only 500 units less than 1% of the planned units were constructed. The political chaos and the resulting civil war (1966-1970) contributed to the marginal progress recorded during this period.
Second National Development Plan(1971-74)	v Establishment of National Council of Housing (1972) to advise the government on housing matters and Federal Housing Authority (FHA) in 1973 to co-ordinate public housing provisions v Plan direct construction of 59,000 ‘low-cost’ housing units across the Federation.	v 7,080 housing units representing 12% of planned houses were actually built.
Third National Development Plan (1975- 1980)	v -Creation of Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Environment and conversion of Nigerian Building Society to Federal Mortgage bank of Nigeria (FMBN). v Promulgation of the Land Use Decree (1978) v Planned construction of 202,000 low-cost housing units nationwide.	v 30,000 housing units representing less than 15% of planned houses were actually completed
4th National Development Plan (1981- 1985)	v National Housing Program launched for the first time in 1980. Earmarked N1.9 billion for the construction of 160,000 housing units, for low-income people v The second phase of the housing program set out to construct 20,000 housing units across the country	v A total of 47,234 housing units representing about 23.6% of planned housing units were constructed in the first phase. The second phase was cut short by the military coup of 1983
Military Governments (1986-1999)	v National Housing program planned 121,000 houses on Site and-Services housing program between 1993 and 1995 v 1988 National Housing Policy launched to provide Nigerians access to quality housing and basic infrastructure. v 1991 National Housing Policy was launched with the goal of granting all Nigerians access to decent housing by 2000 in response to the slogan “ Housing for All by the year 2000” of the United Nations.	v 5,500 housing units (less than 5%) of planned houses were actually constructed. v Provision of rural infrastructure through the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI)
Civilian Governments (1999-2010)	v The New National Housing and Urban Development Policy (NHUDP) launched in 2002 with the goal of ensuring that “all Nigerians own or have access to decent housing through private sector-led initiatives”. v Planned construct about 10,271 housing units through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements in different PPP housing schemes across the country. v Planned construction of 500 housing units in the Presidential Mandate Housing Scheme in all 36 State capitals and Abuja. v Government planned a pilot project involving the construction of 40,000 housing units per annum nationwide.	v 2000 serviced plot through PPP site and service in Ikorodu, Lagos. v 4,440 housing units completed in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Akure and Abeokuta, through PPP. v The Presidential Mandate Housing Scheme did not take off in many States. In Ogun State about 100 housing units representing 20% of the planned units were constructed. v Records of the achievement level of the pilot projects are not available.

Source: Ali (1996); Omole (2001),

Apart from the failure of public-sector housing to provide planned number of housing units as Table 1 suggests, unimpressive result has also been recorded in the provision of quality housing in Nigeria.

Although each of the 1988, 1991, 2002 and 2006 National Housing Policies set outs to provide Nigerians access to qualitative and satisfactory housing at affordable cost; several studies have succinctly shown that these policies and the housing schemes derived from them achieved minimal success in this area (Awotona, 1978;)

Each of the above cited works identified lack of consideration of end users’ socio-economic and cultural attributes and personal preferences as being responsible for unsatisfactory public housing as perceived by the users. Moreover, there is the general notion that this development is due to lack of proper monitoring and evaluation of housing policies and programs in Nigeria (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1991).

Evidence in existing literature suggests that one of the key criteria for enhancing product and service quality is a good information infrastructure that allows for feedback loops, performance appraisals and benchmarking against self and others (Kellecher, 2010). The reality is that there is dearth of good information infrastructure that allows for feedback mechanism in public housing delivery system in Nigeria (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1991). This is probably why there appear to be no adequate and reliable information base for effective housing policy formulation, program design and implementation strategies in the country, which is inimical to effective and efficient public housing delivery system. It is very obvious from the review of literature that the very reason why this problem exists in the country has not been properly investigated.

With respect to affordable housing provision, the UN-HABITAT (2006) report on Nigeria noted that past public housing policies and programs in the country were aimed at enabling low-income earners gain access to decent housing at affordable cost. According to Aribigbola (2008), the 2002 New National Housing and Urban Development Policy (NNHUDP) for instance, asserted that no Nigerian is expected to pay more than 20% of his or her monthly income on housing. But to the contrary, prior studies (Onibokun, 1985; Awotona, 1990; Mba 1992; Olotuah and Bobadoye, 2009; Ibem, 2010) have shown that the targeted population of many past public housing schemes in Nigeria did not benefit from such schemes. This was due to high cost of housing units provided. Consequently, several authors have contended that the constraints in accessing housing inputs (land, building materials and finance) as well as cost of providing infrastructure were partly responsible for the hike in the cost of public housing beyond the reach of an average Nigerian (Ikejiofor, 1999; UN-HABITAT, 2006; Aribigbola, 2008). In addition, it can also be deduced from literature that poor management of those housing schemes and the use of inappropriate design standards contributed to high cost of public housing in the last few decades in Nigeria (Onibokun, 1985; Mustapha, 2002; Ademiluyi, 2010).

From the foregoing, it is evident that there are challenges in the provision of affordable housing that is quantitative and qualitative adequate by public sector in Nigeria since independence in 1960. Some of these challenges are contextual and are primarily due to the external social, economic and political environment in which public housing schemes were conceived, designed and implemented while others are organizational challenges within public housing agencies. The current study is primarily concerned with the causes of, and possible solutions to these challenges.

REFERENCES

Ademiluyi, I.A (2010) Public Housing Delivery Strategies in Nigeria: A Historical Perspective of Policies and Programmes. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa.12 (6) 153-161

Ajanlekoko, K.S. (2002). Appraisal of the National Housing Policy. Housing Today 1 (6)13-20

Akinmoladun, O.I., Oluwoye, J., (2007). An Assessment of Why the Problems of Housing Shortages Persist in Developing Countries: A case of Study of Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria Pakistan Journal of Social Science 4(4) 589-598).

Awotona, A. (1990) .Nigerian Government Participation in Housing: 1970- 1980. Habitat

International 14 (10) 17-40

Balchin, P.R; Isaac D. and Chen, J. (2000) Urban Economics: A Global Perspective. New York: Palgrave