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.