The Missing Link in Housing Sector Reforms in Nigeria

Housing is a fundamental product for every human being irrespective of financial standing. World acclaimed American psychologist, Abraham Maslow ranked shelter as second only to food in his hierarchy of human needs. Despite the importance of housing to the socio-economic development of man and the nation, housing problems have remained endemic throughout the world. In today’s world, some 100 million persons are homeless and more than a billion are inadequately housed. In 2002 housing deficit in Nigeria was put at about 8 million units. Latest statistics indicate that Nigeria requires a whopping 700,000 housing units annually for the next 15 years. The question is why this state of affairs? Why the perennial and unending problems of housing shortages, forced evictions and slum development? The paper examined these issues in Nigeria in order to advance the future prospect of the sector. The paper identified that whilst reforms were been made to all other subsector of the housing industry, land reform necessary to fast track the process was left unattended to by the government. The paper thus advocated for a robust reform of the current land management system in order to impact positively on the housing reform agenda in Nigeria.