ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HOUSING POLICY IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY FCT ABUJA

ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HOUSING POLICY IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY FCT ABUJA

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Rapid urbanization and population growth have caused many problems in developing countries. Nigeria the most populous nation in Africa is estimated to have 198 m i l lion people (NPC 2018), is faced with the problem of a huge housing deficit. As a result of this many slums have emerged thereby distorting the growth and development of towns and cities. There are so many people without shelter who have to either squat, or live in make-shift and temporary housing without proper utilities. With a combination of push and pull factors, urban migration in a developing country like Nigeria account for over 55% of population growth (World Bank, 2013). Abdullahi and Aziz (2010) give Abuja’s growth rate as 9.3% and housing development is a major challenge to the government. The series of policies for the realization of this have been inconsistent, inadequate, slow and procedurally difficult. This has led to a serious overcrowding and massive development of squatter settlements and Slums all over Abuja.

Housing is a crucial basic need of every human being just as food and clothing (Aribigbola, 2006). It is very fundamental to the welfare, survival and health of man (Fadamiro 2004). Hence, housing i s one of the best indicators of a person’s standard of living and his place in the society. The location and type of housing can determine or affect the status of man in the society. Kehinde (2010) noted that shelter is central to the existence of man. He submitted further that housing involves access to land, shelter and the necessary amenities to make the shelter functional, convenient, safe and hygienic. Hence, unsanitary, unhygienic, unsafe and inadequate housing can affect the security, physical health and privacy of man.

Abuja has been experiencing very rapid urbanization. This is largely due to urban growth associated with natural population growth and rural-urban migration driven by rapid socio-economic changes and development, tied to the movement of the seat of Federal Government of Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja in 1991. However, this growth has not been matched with simultaneous provision of adequate housing infrastructure. The demand for basic infrastructure services has also grown over the years, quickly outstripping the supply capacity of existing assets which manifested in the acute shortage of dwelling units and resulted in overcrowding, high rents, poor urban living conditions. Many years of underinvestment and poor maintenance have left Abuja with a significant infrastructure deficit which is holding back the city development and economic growth. Abuja needs to make massive investments beyond the means available to government in order to close its yawning infrastructure gap. The Federal Government believes that the private sector can play an important role in providing some of this new investment through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Therefore, the need to provide adequate, suitable and equitable housing has remained a major priority of the government, since that piecemeal housing can never solve the housing requirement of the country estimated at about 16 million units (Gemade, 2010).

With the declining financial resources of government on housing delivery and other infrastructural services, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) has been widely advocated for housing and infrastructure development in Nigeria as part of recent housing reforms. The National Housing Policy (NHP, 2006) marked a significant transition of the government to position itself as enabler and facilitator in housing delivery. It advocated increased participation by the private sector and emphasized government’s role in creating conditions to boost housing supply by eliminating legal and regulatory constraints and supporting appropriate infrastructure investments.

This entailed a notable shift in the public sector role from direct housing provision to engaging the private sector in constructing, financing, operating and maintaining housing units. Deriving from international documents such as the Global Strategy for Shelter to the year 2000 (UNCHS, 1992), and later Enabling Markets to work (World Bank, 1993), subsequent policy documents like Nigeria National Housing Policy (NHP, 2006) emphasized the policy thrust of simultaneously enhancing and changing the roles of the public and private sectors. This new role requires that real estate developers learn how to build houses to particular price targets, so that members of different income groups can aspire to the status of homeownership.

In recognition of the importance of housing for the citizenry in Nigeria, there have been several housing policies dating back to the colonial era, some by the central government while some were by regional governments between 1950s and 1970. These regional housing policies were coordinated by the various Regional Housing Corporations (Oladimej i , 20 15). By 1973, the Federal Government established the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) as a public housing agency to play a dominant role in the implementation of the National Housing Programme as outlined in the Third National Development Plan (Amdii, 1993 in Oladimeji, 2015). This study is undetiaken to assess the i mplementation of Housing Policy from 2007 to 2017 with the view to ascertaining the effectiveness of the implementation of the Housing Policy and the challenges that Federal Housing Authority is faced within the period under review.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Nigeria is perhaps the fastest urbanizing country in the Afi”ican continent and one of the major problems facing the urbanization process is provision of affordable housing. Raj i (2008), opined that as more and more Nigerians make towns and cities their homes, the resulting social, economic, environmental, and political challenges need to be urgently addressed. Modernization, characterized by a rapid growth of the population, can exert pressure on the demand for housing if not adequately addressed by a corresponding increase in the provision of houses. The housing imbalance in Nigeria has widened in the last decade. From 7 million in 1991, the Nigeria housing deficit has since increased to 12 million in 2007 and 14 million in 2010. Latest estimates of the state of housing in Nigeria put the total housing deficit as at end of 2011 at 16 million units and in 2017 housing deficit in Nigeria is 17 million, requiring investments of over N56 trillion to narrow the deficit, (CBN 2017). Nigeria could not overcome this 17 million housing deficit due to government policy summersault in housing policies as successive administrations scarcely complete set projects before their tenures elapsed and most of such projects are usually abandoned for new ones by the successors. Dearth of funds, improper regulatory and compliance system for real estate developers, lack of access to land, corruption, poor administrative system, high cost of construction and the like have also been listed as some of the reasons for Nigeria’s housing sector woes. These factors have led to the huge housing deficit in the nation leaving over 65 per cent of Nigerians dwelling in slums.

The 1999 Nigerian Constitution Section Sixteen (16), Sub Section (2)d under the Fundamental Objectives of State Policy urges the Nigerian State to provide suitable and adequate shelter for all citizens. The Nigerian government seems to have recognized the importance of providing decent and affordable housing for Nigerians and the government agreed that we have housing deficit. The 1981/82 National Housing Programme was designed to provide 350 medium and high income housing units in each of the then 19 states of the Federation by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). This is in addition to the National Low Income Housing Programme embarked by the government in all the states of the federation popularly known as Shagari Low Cost Housing, under the supervision of Federal Ministry of Housing and Environment (NHP, 2006). During this pe1iod government embarked on elaborate housing programme, a proposed 40,000 housing units were to be constructed all over the federation annually with 2000 units per state including Abuja, the Federal Capital City. The estimated target for housing delivery under this policy was 200,000 between 1981 and 1985 but only 47,500 houses were constructed across the nineteenth ( 1 9) states of the federation including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. Again an ambitious housing policy was launched by the then military government in 1991 with a slogan “Housing for all by the Year 2000 A.D”. The 2000-2004 policy focus was on the private sector to serve as the main catalyst for housing delive1y in Nigeria, but all these efforts to achieve the various targets failed. Thus, there is need to evaluate the causes of the housing deficit and also examine the nation’s agencies tasked with the responsibility of tackling the menace and by so doing, be able to tackle the problem of housing from the point of cause and to proffering lasting solutions.

The study therefore assessed the implementation of the housing policy in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, in doing so; the study provided answers to the following questions:

1. To what extent do the factors of provision of Housing affect the growing housing deficit in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)?
2. To what extent does policy summersault by successive government’s impact on the effective implementation of the housing policy by Federal Housing Authority (FHA)?
3. How does access to funding affect the capacity of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) in the provision of low cost housing for the low income earners?

1.3       Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of this study is to assess the implementation of the housing policy in Federal Capital Territory FCT Abuja.

The study was further guided by the following specific objectives:

1. To determine whether the factors in provision of Housing affect the growing housing deficit in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
2. To access the impact of policy summersault by successive governments on the effective implementation of the housing policy by Federal Housing Authority (FHA).
3. To evaluate access to funding affecting the capacity of FHA in the provision of low cost housing for the low income earners.
4. To recommend solution to the housing deficit in Nigeria

1 .4      Research Hypotheses

1. H_o: There is no significant relationship between the factors in provision of

Housing by Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and the growing housing deficit.

2. H_o: There 1s no significant relationship between policy summersault by successive governments and the effective implementation of the housing policy by Federal Housing Authority (FHA).

3. H_o: There i s no significant relationship between access to funding and the capacity of Federal Housing Authority in the provision of low cost housing for the low income earners.

1.5       Significance of the Study

The following are the significance of the study:

This research is an addition to several other researches that have been made in recent times with the aim of encouraging stakeholders in the housing sector to bring the growing housing deficit to a halt by providing affordable housing for Nigerians.

The findings of this study will be of great importance to the Management and staff of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) as it will analyze the Nigeria housing policy and its implementation with a view of establishing the reasons for lack of access to descent housing by low income earners, it will also contribute to the process of developing better housing policies and strategies in meeting the housing demand of Nigerian populace to enhance their socio-economic status.

The study will equally educate Nigerians on the role the government is playing in housing policy implementation in solving housing deficit in Nigeria.

This will enable the policy makers to initiate policies that will ameliorate the housing problem and the government will also know areas of deficiency to address the problem of housing deficit in Nigeria.

1 .6      Scope and Limitations of the Study

The focus of this study is on the Assessment of the implementation of the Housing Policies in Federal Capital Territory with particular references to

Federal Housing Authority (FHA) between 2007 and 2017 in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and how it has led to provision of housing for low income earners. It will comprise of the staff of FHA and members of the public in the FCT. The period between 2007 and 2017 is very recent in the history of our nation when according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) housing deficit jumped from 12 million in 2007 to 17 million in 2017 which represents about 42% rise in the housing deficit within the 10 years in focus. Also the Federal Capital Territory is found according to NBS, (2017) to have contributed about 1.7 million to the 17 million national housing deficits.

The Federal Capital Territory has six Area Councils which are:

1. Abaji Area Council;
2. Abuja Municipal Area Council;
3. Bwari Area Council;
4. Gwagwalada Area Council;
5. Kwali Area Council; and
6. Kuje Area Council.

The study is focused on Abuja Municipal Area council (AMAC) because it is the largest Area Council in terms of population and much of the activities of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has so far been concentrated on this Area council since it is the seat of power and as such attract the presence of so many people, as many people want to be close to the seat of power.

The depth and extent of this study is limited by the following factors:

1. Unwillingness on the part of the staff and management of the FHA Abuja to volunteer information: To this end the researcher persuaded them to release the needed information by appealing to them and by obtaining a letter of introduction from the Department to the Managing Director seeking for cooperation.
2. Inadequacy of time: the time to go repeatedly to FHA Abuja and National Bureau of Statistics to seek information and also to administer questionnaire and consult my supervisor required seeking permission from work frequently. The researcher overcame this challenge by obtaining leave within the period when serious work would be required by the research.
3. Insufficient fund: The researcher would have loved to work on a higher sample size, but that would require more fund to administer the questionnaire, retrieve and analyze the data therein. Such fund is not available right now so the researcher had to make do with the minimum requirement for sample size using the criteiion of 10% as suggested by Babbie (1979) that systematic sampling requires that where a study is confronted with a very large population size, certain percentage can be employed to reduce the population to a manageable size for empirical analysis.

1 .7      Operational Definition of Terms

For better understanding of the study, the basic concepts enumerated below are defined.

Housing: Housing is a permanent shelter for human habitation or building where people live, it can also mean a dwelling place.

Housing Deficit: Means housing shortage, a deficiency or lack in the number of houses needed to accommodate the population of an area.

Affordable Housing: This refers to a house which cost no more than 30% of the income of the occupant household, “in Nigeria the housing policy does not want Nigerian to spend more than 20% of their income on housing expenditure”.

Low-income Earner: This refers to members of the public whose legitimate annual income ranges between N216, 000 and N999, 000. This based on the national minimum wage of N 18, 000 monthly. Note that such income also covers self-employed members of the society.

Middle-Income Earner: The middle income earners are senior officials in government and private establishments. The legitimate annual income of this group ranges from between Nl,000,000 and N5,000,000

High -income Earner: this refers to top government officials in the executive, legislature, judiciary and captains of industry whose legitimate annual earnings is above N5,000,000.

Housing Finance: This refers to a specialized method of long-tenn finance for the purpose of housing construction or purchase.

Urbanization: this refers to the outcome of socio-economic and political development that leads to urban concentration and growth of large cities, changes in land use and transformation from rural to metropolitan pattern of organization and governance.

1.8       Historical Background of the Study Area It was in 1976 that Federal Military Government led by Late General Murtala Mohammed enacted Federal Capital Territory Act (FCT) established Abuja after it has been chosen to be the administrative capital of Nigeria and with solely administrative functions. This was after the failure of Lagos due to the problems of inadequate land space for future expansion, terrible traffic congestion, poor drainage, acute housing shortage and associated costs, unbearable ethnic influence etc. The planned period for the transfer was to be completed in 1986. However, it was on 12^th December, 1991, that the final movement of Federal capital to Abuja became a reality. Abuja is located in the geographical centre of Nigeria (Figure 1.1) and lying between latitudes 6o 45’ and longitudes 7o 39’ north of the equator. The land of approximately 8,000 square kilometres was carved out from the then neighbouring states of Kwara, Niger and Plateau to serve as the FCT and the Federal Capital City (FCC) to constitutes about 250 square metres. From its designed capacity the FCC will contain 3.2 million people when the development of the city is completed, however, the Abuja population has exploded to 6 million with less than 50% of development attained. The government vested all the land in FCT in the Federal Government of Nigeria. The government also created Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), as its agency responsible for the spatial planning and development of the FCT.