Addressing Housing Deficit in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Prospects

The article provides a brief review of housing policies under various regimes in Nigeria namely: the colonial era; independence and beyond; The Shagari administration (1979 -1983); Obasanjo regime under civilian rule14 (1999-2007); Yar’dua regime (29 May 2007 – 9 February 2010); Goodluck Jonathan regime (2010 – 2015); The Buhari administration (2015-2019). The article then discussed the problems militating against the achievement of targets in housing as well as the issues and opportunities. The article concluded by stressing the need to: maintain a conducive macro-economic environment which entails the maintenance of low inflation, low interest rates and stable exchange rates; deepen the housing financial market as and well as liberalising access to it on a long-term basis for all categories of income; simplify transaction costs in all areas of housing such as land allocation, and registration of titles; make available all the information on the procedure for obtaining financial assistance from all quarters by government; ensure that time and money are adequately spent to ensure the availability of locally produced building materials in adequate quantity. This is in view of the fact that building materials and others in Nigeria are always very expensive; and adequate number of skilled labour in Nigeria which is expensive.