A Review of Housing Provision and the Challenges of Sustainable Housing Delivery in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Housing, despite being one of the essential elements in the sustainability of human existence, remains a challenge particularly in the global south. Nigeria, the most populous country in west Africa has a gross housing deficit of seventeen million houses. This deficit keeps increasing due to high rate of urbanization and population growth thereby resulting in high rent, overcrowding and poor living conditions. Numerous research studies predominantly focused on investigating the challenges of housing delivery on the basis of quantity and quality perspectives. However, there is a dearth of evidence-based studies regarding the challenges militating against sustainable housing provision. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting an overview of the housing provision and the challenges militating against sustainable housing provision in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria. The article indicated that despite concerted efforts involving the adoption of both public sector “provider” and “enabler” approaches, challenges still exit towards sustainable housing delivery particularly to the low-income group. The paper recommends that housing policies and programs in the country should be designed to address the multi benefit objectives of social, economic and environmental dimensions of housing so as to achieve sustainable housing delivery in the country.

An empirical study of the challenges facing zakat and waqf institutions in Northern Nigeria

“…The frequent mentioning of trust and confidence by all the interviewees called for great concern, which made it one of the most important themes in the data collected. Even the Zamfara State Zakat and Endowment Board was not exonerated from this factor, according to Muhammad (2015).…”

Public Low-Cost Housing Design: The Residents’ Perception

“…House forms, such as their interior layouts, and the dwellings layout in a neighborhood can be supportive or disrupting of the culture of their inhabitants [17]. Most of low-cost housing estates are usually of low standard and in most cases the housing design does not addresses the socio-cultural lifestyle of the low income groups in Abuja, Nigeria [29]. Olayiwola, Adeleye & Jiboye [32] in their research the effect of socio-cultural variables on housing quality in Oshogbo, Nigeria, they found out that, the level of quality building and elements such as design, building space, drainage system are below the desired and expected standard in the study area.…”

Remodelling façade design for improving daylighting and the thermal environment in Abuja's low-income housing

“…The architectural landscape in many cities throughout Nigeria has changed since the 1970s, largely dominated by mass housing production schemes implemented by the public sector [21], [28]. The oil boom in the mid-70s boosted the country's economy and in turn the government, for the first time, participated actively in the provision of housing for all income groups.…”

“…Akinwolemiwa and Gwilliam [19], on the other hand, have explored low energy and passive cooling opportunities to improve thermal comfort in low-income residences in Lagos through the use of financially affordable living walls (vertical green systems). As informative as these studies are, providing an insight into the thermal behaviour of Nigeria's housing, surprisingly only a few (studies) examined the environmental performance of the residential architecture of Abuja, where one of the most extensive public housing development programmes in the country's history has been implemented [20], [21]. In addition, most publications on comfort and the housing sector in Nigeria tend to focus on the thermal aspect of the housing units, while little attention is given to the visual aspect of the design.…”