Affordable Housing in Nigeria Using Alternative Building Technologies and Materials: A NBRRI Perspective.

Abstract

The issue of housing in Nigeria is one that has lingered over the years, and have become a serious concern for both government and the citizens. While the nation’s housing deficit was estimated at 17 million in 2012, Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics showed that population increased by 23,595,533 since then. It is projected that 700,000 houses must be built annually in order to bridge the housing deficit gap. Currently, only 100,000 houses are being achieved thereby posing enormous task to all stakeholders. Previous governments have tried to tackle housing issue but have recorded marginal success due to a combination of factors that have continued to be serious hindrances to achieving satisfactory accomplishment in housing and real estate sector. Access to funding, legal processes involved in property and land procurement, and access to affordable and high quality building materials constitute the main constraints to improving the existing housing stock in Nigeria. Conventional building materials and technologies are currently expensive and they require hundreds of billions of Naira to acquire. It is on this premise that this paper examined affordable strategies and solutions for improving the building stock in Nigeria by deployment of alternative building materials for mass housing projects using NBRRI technologies and innovations. Although, with varying standards, NBRRI technologies – through peculiar methods, materials and manpower have shown that with awareness for the pressing need for appropriate use of alternative building materials, they can bridge the nation’s housing gap as a sustainable vehicle for affordable housing.