Nigeria has no housing crisis – Fashola

By Egena Sunday Ode

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has asserted that there is no housing crisis in Nigeria, dismissing claims of 17 million housing deficits.
Fasola made this declaration on Thursday when he appeared on the weekly ministerial briefing organized by Presidential Communication Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He argued that the pressure on housing in the country was a consequence of rural-urban migration, which, accident to him, created a demand and supply problem.
The Minister insisted that that a country with many empty houses cannot be classified as being deficit in housing, warning that those bandying the claimed deficit figure should desist from doing so.
Insisting that the alleged deficit is not real, Fashola pointed out that it is not tantamount to housing deficit when people leave their houses in the rural areas to squat in the cities.
He said: “It’s illogical to say we have that housing deficit when you have empty houses. No such deficit exist anywhere in the world.”
Fashola said he had consulted with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and some International organizations including the African Development Bank (AfDP) and confirmed that the Nigerian housing deficit reports are not correct.
The Minister, however, stated that actual housing deficit in Nigeria cannot be ascertained until another census is conducted in the country, saying that his ministry had already designed a questionnaire for the Nigeria Population Commission in that regard to be administered during the next head count exercise.
He said: “We are not in a housing crisis and this is a subject of a full discussion. My take is that the housing shortages, essentially, in all parts of the world, are in the urban centers and not in the rural areas. So, it is a problem that has come as a result of urbanization. People move from rural to urban centers and create a supply and demand problem.
“You will find that many of the people in urban centers like Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Abeokuta, etc, seeking to squat with somebody or trying to rent a house, have an empty home in his village.
“In the urban center again, you will see that there are still empty houses. We have to discuss housing on two paradigms of ownership and rentals, because no nation provides free housing for its citizens.
“One of the things we try to address is to urge states to intervene in the management of rents. So, as long as people still have to pay three years rent from salaries that are earned monthly in arrears, there will still be problems of affordability.
“I have been asking where that data came from, because I like to dimension what I have to manage. The first response I got was from World Bank. I met with the Country Manager of the World Bank, who said they did not have idea of where the figure came from.
“Somebody said, well, maybe it was Africa Development Bank. I also met the Country Manager who said, No, it wasn’t from them. I also asked the National Bureau of Statistics and they said they don’t have such figures. So, nobody could tell me where the figure came from. Until I find it.”
Fashola hinted on plans to establish a “maintenance economy” for the constant maintenance of public facilities, saying that his ministry may urge President Muhammadu Buhari to issue an executive order for the purpose.
He said the works and housing ministry had already reactivated maintenance units including those for bridges, and they are already making viable impact on infrastructure.
On roads, Fashola said the present administration has so far issued over 800 road contracts to address road infrastructure deficit across the country.