It has been suggested that the Federal Government give housing programs greater attention and funding in order to provide Nigerians with access to more affordable dwellings in light of the upcoming population surge.
216 million people, or 2.7% of the world’s population, lived in Nigeria as of 2022, according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Remember that the United Nations Population Fund predicted that Nigeria’s population will increase by 3.2% year, reaching 400 million by 2050.
The government must take the initiative to create cheap housing, according to Kunle Awobodu, the recently-past President of the Nigeria Institute of Building, in order to avert a housing crisis in the country.
He said that strategies to lower the cost of cement and other materials as well as more research into locating building supplies locally would go a long way toward improving a low-cost housing program.
He said, “Houses are not affordable because purchasing power is low and this creates some deep conflict because with the rising price of building materials, labour and the inconsistency in the pricing due to inflation, it also becomes very difficult for the government to implement a housing scheme.
“Unfortunately, the population is rising astronomically, and providing adequate accommodation to take the rising number of occupants has become a difficult role to hold.
“We have to go back to a drawing table and strategise, we have been talking for a long time. Until we can source building materials internally without resulting in importation, then we would be in a position to provide affordable housing at a low-cost rate.
“We need to do a lot of research, but the question is this; if we intensify our effort in the research sector and we come out with building materials that can be sourced and manufactured locally, we are not going to have the same experience we are currently having with cement.
