Challenges of Housing and Urban Development Sector REFORMS and impact on Huge Housing deficit.

Problem: Nigeria has a huge housing deficit, standing at 16 million units in 2010.

Reform Actions: 
- National Housing policy and National Urban Development Policy 44
- National Building Code
- National Physical Development Plan
- Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform
- Improved Land Database
- Alternative Housing and Building Technologies
- Establishment of Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC)
- Sale of Government Houses

Main Achievements: The NMRC has launched a scheme to provide 10,000 mortgages for 10,000 houses. Government has also launched a mortgage scheme for diaspora Nigerians. National Housing Fund has built 61,800 housing units in the six geopolitical zones. Access to mortgage financing is slowly increasing. The reforms have reduced the burden of housing provision on government as a result of commercialisation policy of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), and the introduction of public private partnership (PPP) in the delivery of housing. Between July 2010 and September 2014 a total of 43,126 housing units were added to the national stock and during the period 2010-2014 the Ministry generated a total revenue of N8,110,389,817 through tender feed, ground rent, title registrations etc. There has been a focus on urban renewal and slum upgrading and Under the MDG a total of 444 projects have been completed.

Key Challenges: 
(a) existence of huge housing deficit of at least 17 million units;
(b) tortuous process of obtaining a mortgage, with interest rate of more than 20%;
(c) high cost of housing delivery to citizens for the middle class means very limited chance of owning a house, and even less so for low-income earners;
(d) very expensive building materials that are sometimes of dubious quality;
(e) the land use policy is still a challenge and the Land Use Act, 1978, is a constraint to land accessibility and ownership and
(f) there remains capacity gaps in the sector including prevalence of unskilled local personnel in the building industry.

Reference:  Public Service Reforms in Nigeria (1999-2014) - A Comprehensive Review

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