One of the major objectives of a private initiative that is called African International Housing Show, which organizes international housing conference and exhibition, on annual basis, is to assist the Government in the facilitation of the delivery of affordable housing. The organization is based in Abuja. Hence its commencement as Abuja Housing Show as a local initiative 20 years ago.
It graduated to Abuja International Housing Show before its transformation to African International Housing Show, due to its growing global patronage. By this year 2026 the organization will be holding its 20thEdition. However, due to some recalcitrant challenges, achieving the Affordable housing objective in Abuja is still a mirage.
The basic elements of housing that determines affordability are land, finance, infrastructure, building materials and labour. Our Government has stopped the direct provision of houses, even if it built, is for sale to recover the investment, either on short or long term bases. In such circumstances, the major areas where the government can directly play key role are land acquisition, the provision of infrastructure, and favourable policy for the achievement of the objectives. The organized private sector and the community would provide the finance, building materials and labour.
Just like any other urban area, Abuja City cannot survive without the urban poor, who overwhelmingly constitute the labour force sustaining the City. There are as many houses needed to accommodate the labour force. But, the many housing estates available are exotic, mostly not tailored for the affordability of the ordinary citizens who belong to the low income group.Thus, housing problems in Abuja is not that ofavailability, but affordability.
Measures for ensuring housing affordability are included in the Abuja Master plan and have always been in the Federal Ministry of Housing policies over the years. But the government is yet to find a solution to land speculation, because almost all are involved. This is a major challenge militating against affordable housing everywhere.
Previously, Accelerated Mass Housing developments, Malaysian Housing model and others were among the policy options explored by the Federal Capital Development Authority. Clearly, all these previous options neglected the aspect of affordability.
The solution for the ordinary citizen is to explore where housing rents are affordable, or where they can out rightly build their houses at affordable rates.Therefore, rather than living in the city where they earn their livelihood, majority of the labour force of the Federal Capital City live outside. This is what is responsible for the Abuja City working population’s living in Suleja, Madalla, Mararraba and Masaka, and their surrounding suburbs, in Niger and Nasarawa States. The absence of affordable houses is also responsible for the ghost city life in the City at weekends and public holidays.
Also, worthy of note is the fact that the sources of financing most of the housing estates were mostly from ill-gotten wealth, the owners wouldn’t mind the houses being empty till such a time they are able to get their desired price, irrespective of the hash economic climate. Unlike genuine investors that require continuous fund for reinvestment, these category of people do not care, because they are not in need, there are plenty slush cash where the little amount was removed for this project. We have earlier advocated for heavy tax on houses lying fallow without occupants.
Making land acquisition less expensive and cumbersome and the policy of prompt provision of infrastructure shall in no small way contribute toreduction of the high cost of housing in the city. However, we are afraid it shall still not be adequate for the attainment of the desired affordability to the urban poor. Housing in Abuja shall remain the exclusive reserve of the rich for a very long time to come.
Infrastructure as one of the key components improves the value of land. Contrarily, instead of becoming an advantage to lower the cost of land and housing, the provision of infrastructure by the Government are being capitalized upon at no cost by the developers to increase the cost of rent and housing.
The Authority should encourage the emergence of strong community based associations, which it can collaborate with, by provision of land at suitable locations, assist them in the areas of acquiring soft loans from financial and mortgage institutions to build their houses. The employment of community based labour and knowledge of special low cost construction technology through assistance from government and established philanthropic organizations shall be an added advantage. Typical example is the Kambi Moto model in Nairobi Kenya.
In the FCT, the local inhabitants are threatened by relocation. The upgrading of informal housing through community development approach could be applicable for the integration of local and indigenous communities threaten by relocation by the city expansion.
Community driven projects are favoured policy option for meeting the needs and aspirations of the urban poor. It relies on the community resources and initiative to find affordable, innovative and sustainable solutions to housing shortages that meets local needs.More of the Government role is to be on creation offavourable policies and as one of the resource supporters, rather than direct provision.
