MSc. Construction Project Management.
Edinburgh Napier University.
Course: Building Economics - BSV11111
Author: EMMANUEL TAIWO AGOI,
Coursework 2, November 2020.
email: 40499617@live.napier.ac.uk
URBANISATION AND THE PROBLEM OF HOUSING
IN LAGOS METROPOLIS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Rapid Urbanisation in Lagos Metropolitan city has continued to bring about its attendant
challenges especially in the area of Housing shortage for the ever increasing population.
This trend, despite the various efforts in the past years by our leaders, the government and
the private sector, the situation is yet to improve as over 60% of ‘Lagosians’ are still living in
poor conditions. This report based on past research findings reviews these problems and
presents ways to address this lingering Housing shortage attributed to factors such as land,
finance, and government.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LAGOS METROPOLITAN CITY
Lagos metropolis houses over 33% of Lagos state’s population, hence its importance cannot
be underscored. Because of its high population density, more attention is required in solving
our housing problems putting in mind its socio-economic position being a major industrial
hub of the region for the economic growth of the state and of the country at large, as it
accounts for over 10% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
HOUSING PROBLEM IN LAGOS METROPOLIS
Several efforts have been made by the various levels of our government and the private
sector towards bridging the housing deficit, with little success achieved so far, as much is
still needed to be done as Lagos still accounts for about 5 million housing deficit,
representing 31% of the 18 million national housing deficit.
GOVERNMENT EFFORT IN HOUSING DELIVERY IN METROPOLITAN LAGOS
THE STATE GOVERNMENT
The state government made notable efforts with its ministries and agencies through direct
execution of various housing projects. It also made various policies and laws to improve
housing delivery including initiating the Public Private sector Participation, but all these are
yet to deliver the much desired results.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Federal government in resolving housing shortages, like the state government, initiated
various housing schemes nation-wide and in Lagos, by establishing various agencies,
including Federal financial institutions to provide funding to assist all interests in the
provision of housing. This also has so far recorded low impact.
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO HOUSING PROBLEM IN METROPOLITAN LAGOS
Various factors responsible for the housing problems in our Lagos are highlighted in this
report. The most prominent ones border around land, finance, inflation, material cost,
technology, skilled manpower, corruption and the political will of the government in tackling
the problems. Most of these can only be addressed by the government.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations have been made in line with the identified problems and these includes
the provision of better access to land, finance, tackling corruption and the review of existing
government policies and laws to better involve private participation, to jointly address these
challenges in view of the present situation with the aim of finding a lasting solution to the
problem of urbanisation and housing towards achieving economic growth.
CONCLUSIONS
There is a need for the government and private sector to come together to deliberate, restrategize and agree on the best approach for housing delivery while keeping in view the
peculiarity of the Lagos housing needs.
KEYWORDS
Urbanisation, Housing, Metropolitan Lagos, Population density, Migration, government
INTRODUCTION
The twentieth century, labelled the ‘Urban Century’ by experts, witnessed a continuous shift
or migration of people from the rural areas to the urban settlements in cities like Lagos
(Keivani, 2010). Reasons for migration are identified as a result of ‘Pull Factors’ to the cities
like Employment opportunities, city life, technology, health, social and educational
opportunities, or due to ‘Push Factors’ away from the rural areas, like communal clashes,
wars, hardship, drought, health reasons, limited education and lack of adequate job
opportunities (Marshall et al 2009). Arguably, urbanisation is important as it brings about
agglomeration economies to cities through industrialization, because the citing of industries
together will facilitates communication, sharing of technology, competition and economic
growth (World Bank, 2009).
However, the advantages mentioned above begin to be greatly offset by ‘Rapid
Urbanisation’ causing congestion, which consequently leads to a rising strain on the existing
poor infrastructure, resulting in challenges of housing shortages, transportation problems,
water and air pollution, poor telecommunication, inefficient power supply, education
shortages, security problems, waste disposal challenges, health challenges and poverty,
(Keivani, 2010). Many key international organisations and experts believe that the benefits of
urbanisation however, greatly outweighs the costs, therefore it is a necessity (World Bank
2009; UN-HABITAT 2008; 2010; OECD 2006; UNFPA, 2007; Turok, 2014).
This report is based on findings of past works carried out by key researchers in the Lagos
housing sector. It presents the problems associated with the Urbanisation of Lagos
Metropolitan City, with special focus on the problem of housing deficit. It identified factors
such as inadequate access to finance, land, poor infrastructure, corruption and lack of
commitment of the government, are responsible for low success recorded in bridging the
housing gap. Recommendations have also been suggested which includes better
commitment on the part of the government to address the issues identified, and more focus
should be directed on the provision of favourable conditions required for better private
involvement in solving the housing problems of Lagos. These are necessary changes to be
adopted by our leaders to achieve growth in Lagos.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LAGOS METROPOLITAN CITY
Lagos Metropolis is a coastal city located on longitudes 2O41’E and 3O42’E and latitudes
6O22’N and 6O52’N bordering the Atlantic Ocean southwards, comprising 16 of the 20 Local
Government Areas in Lagos state, South-West Nigeria (Wikipedia 2020; UNCHS, 1996;
Abosede, 2006) See figure 1-4. While only about 7% of the population lived in urban centres
around 1930s, this increased to about 40% in the 1990s, with about 60% becoming
“houseless persons” living in slums (Okupe, 2002; Taiwo, 2009; FGN 2004). Lagos
continued to grow in population size and density from a traditional spatial urban settlement of
3.85 square kilometres, absorbing other smaller urban centres and slums around it, with its
wetlands also being converted into urban settlements, to become a Metropolitan city of
1,183 square kilometres, which houses about 33% of the population of the State (Sunday et
al, 2006) See tables 1 & 2.
Lagos being the former capital of Nigeria is home to headquarters of many multinational
organisations, financial institutions, commercial banks, oil firms, biggest sea ports in West
Africa and the biggest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) & electronics
market in Africa, making it a major economic destination in Nigeria, earning about 10% of
Nigeria’s GDP (Zeng, 2008; Lagos State Government, 2008). Lagos is rated as the 14th
largest and 7th fastest growing city in the world (City Mayors Statistics, 2009). Its population
presently is estimated to be about 14 million and this is expected to double by 2050 (World
Population Review, 2020). Lagos like any other city, with rapid urbanisation has variuos
problems as earlier mentioned above with housing shortage ranking as its greatest (Afolabi
et al, 2014; Sunday et al, 2006).
Figure 1.
Figure 2
Table 1
Table 2
HOUSING PROBLEM IN LAGOS METROPOLIS
Housing in Lagos, being the former Federal capital of Nigeria, is provided by the Federal
government, State government and the Private efforts. The government, despite all the
available resources at their disposal, is only able to deliver about 4.2% of its annual
requirement, while 90% of the housing developments are by the private sector (FOS, 1983;
Omole, 2000). Housing needs continues to increase due to Rural - Urban migration which
accounts for about 65% of the population growth, further compounding the housing problem
(Nubi, 2008). This high demand, leads to an inflation in the cost of housing, also increasing
the rental values, with 60% of the residents being tenants, paying as high as 50% - 70% of
their average income, further making it unaffordable for them (Nubi, 2008; Aluko,
2010). Lagos alone accounts for about 5 million housing deficit representing 31% of the
estimated national housing deficit in Nigeria of about 18 million (Oshodi, 2010). Though
there had been significant effort by the Federal and State government in meeting urban
housing needs in Lagos through various housing schemes and policies, these have made
little impact in solving the problem as many still live in slums and squatter settlements with
poor and unhealthy living conditions (Mabogunje, 2002) See Figure 5 & 6.
GOVERNMENT EFFORT IN HOUSING DELIVERY IN LAGOS METROPOLIS
THE STATE GOVERNMENT
Mayaki (2009) reported that the government of Lagos state tried to stem the urban housing
crisis by the construction of housing units in different parts of the state through its various
agencies:
▪
▪
▪
Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB), from 1955 to 1972 delivered, 4,502
housing units, with recorded population increase of 2.1 million (from 1.4 million in
1963 to 3.5 million) within this period.
Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) from 1972 to 2000,
delivered 20,120 housing units, with recorded population increase of 3.14 million
(from 10.28 million in 1995 to 13.42 million in 2000) within this period.
LSDPC, also from 2000 to 2010, further delivered 1,818 housing units, with recorded
population increase of 4.58 million (from 13.42 million in 2000 to about 18 million in
2010) within this period (LSDPC, 2010).
The above major efforts translate to an average of 1 no. housing unit provided to about 371
unit increase in population, which was grossly inadequate in bridging the housing gap.
Also of note are the establishment of New Towns Development Authority (NTDA) in 1980
and the Ikeja Area Planning Authority (IAPA) by the state Government, to provide site and
service function for the private housing developers, and also the initiation of various Public
Private sector Participation (PPP) to involve and encourage private participation in housing
provision (Morakinyo et al, 2015; Abosede, 2006).
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
There were various contributions by the Federal government though with less commitment
compared to the state government. These included the construction of Federal housing
schemes such as Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) estate, with 1000 housing Units,
built in 1977, the establishment of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) in 1977 to
provide financial support for housing, the National Housing Program (NHP) in 1991 and the
National Housing Fund (NHF) in 1992. All these were designed to assist the states and other
interests all over the country with housing provision. The Land use Act of 1978, which
deposits the control of Land in the State government to facilitate easier accessibility to land
for housing developers, like most government policies, was overtaken by bureaucratic
influences by the political elites, rendering it less effective (Morakinyo et al, 2015; Abosede,
2006).
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO HOUSING PROBLEM IN LAGOS METROPOLIS
Several factors have been identified to contribute to the housing problem in Lagos by Omirin,
(2002), Bello, (2007), Afolabi and Dada (2014), Olayiwola, Adeleye and Ogunsakin (2005);
Abosede (2006), Morakinyo et al (2015), Ajibola et al. (2012) and Ajayi (2017). They include
the following:
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Accessibility to land by low income earners is difficult and expensive due to the
existing Land tenure system disregarding the provisions of the Land Use Act of 1978.
Difficulty in accessing finance due to high interest rates charged by lending
institutions and unavailability of long term loans.
High cost of building materials and construction equipment due to over-dependence
on importation and high foreign exchange.
Lack of necessary infrastructures such as road, water, electricity and drainages to
support private developers.
Ineffective technology, primitive construction methods and lack of adequate skilled
manpower to execute projects.
Poverty, low income and a reducing purchasing capacity due to inflation, making
affordability difficult.
Lack of adequate information, inadequate planning and commitment by the
government leading to project failures.
Poor implementation of strategies in housing delivery sometimes due to high
frequency of changes in government policies and laws.
Poor coordination of government agencies and corruption of government officials
involved in housing.
Political interests and lack of collective will power by all stakeholders in tackling the
housing problems.
Rapid urban growth rate due to migration.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations listed below have also been identified by experts as solutions to the
housing problems (ibid):
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
The Federal Government needs to review the Land reforms / Land Use Act of 1978
to better address the peculiarity of the problems of Land acquisition in Lagos.
Monetary policies of financial institutions and interest on loans for housing should be
reviewed.
Government need to engage more in PPP’s with private firms to better understand
and resolve their operational challenges.
More has to be invested in researching into local building materials to reduce cost
and dependency on foreign imports.
Government should show more commitment towards solving housing problems by
the provision of necessary infrastructures with an enabling environment to support
private interests in housing delivery
Corruption in government institutions should be tackled with the seriousness and
urgency needed.
Provision of adequate infrastructures and basic amenities should be put in place both
in the urban and rural areas to reduce urban migration / congestion.
CONCLUSIONS
From the highlighted issues above, it is clear that most of the associated problems of
housing have their root mainly in our government’s method adopted towards meeting the
housing needs and it is time to address this and not leave the task to the government alone.
There is a need for a better concerted effort by all interests, towards achieving the necessary
synergy required in solving this enormous problem as it is evident the government needs the
private sector’s cooperation in general to achieve economic growth.
From the above findings, it can be suggested that going forward, our leaders/ government
should start by creating an avenue where all stakeholders can come together to share their
experience, identify the unique challenges of housing in our city and also review the
effectiveness of the existing policies and laws, with the aim of modifying them to better
address the problems of housing based on the realities on ground. The government should
therefore prioritise more on the provision of needed infrastructures and create an enabling
environment for the private developers to operate, by providing the various support needed,
against having a direct involvement in housing construction, as evidences show that housing
delivery is better achieved by the private sector.
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