Housing affordability for low-income earners in FCT, Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

The influx of population into FCT, Abuja for the last two decades had put challenges in the provision of housing, particularly affordable houses for the low-income earners. After several attempts by the government to solve these challenges, the result seems to remain the same. The government decides to adopt a new approach which is Public-Private Partnership (PPP) approaches. The approach was organized in such a way to give the Private Sector opportunity to participate in the provision of housing at an affordable cost for the FCT inhabitants with much emphasis on the low-income earners of the city whose income largely depends on the minimum wage. Therefore, this research tries to examine the level of achievement of the PPP program in terms of compliance and commitment in delivering adequate and affordable housing for the low-income earners. From the information gathered and analysed, the findings show there was a total failure from both the parties involved i.e public and private sectors. This is due to the fact that right from inception of the program, the partnerships failed to follow the policy guidelines as a process for its implementation. This alone had retard the achievement of the program without realizing its target goals in making houses available at an affordable price for the low-income groups. Most of the Organized Private Sectors that participated were more concerned about profit maximization than the initial agreement of the scheme. Therefore, this research seeks to address the loopholes of the scheme by making some recommendations and conclusion that can correct the existing challenges and future handling of similar schemes that aim at providing adequate and affordable housing for the low-income earners of FCT and Nigeria at large.