Goal: Achieving not more than 5% urban housing deficit by 2034

Available statistics shows that Nigeria has 18 million housing deficits with urban population taking more

than 53% and urbanization growth rate stood at 4.03%. This scenario of high housing deficit is gradually

turning Nigeria’s high income to low income housing market segment as a result of increasing building

costs, a double-digit inflation rate, local currency depreciation, and high housing demand from low and

middle income households, especially in urban centers with a high population. Going by the Imo State

population which stood at 5,737,916 persons in 20211, population growth rate of 2.52% 2, more than

53%2 of them living in the urban area with urbanization rate of 4.3% 3 and up to 58.8%4 of the urban

households living in slums, it is safe to estimate Imo State housing deficit as 464,840 with urban

population accounting for more than 209,178 which is equivalent to 45% deficit. The goal of the

document is to achieve 5% urban housing deficit by 2034 which translate to merely 10,459 urban

households without safe and affordable housing units. In driving the goal on a sustainable basis, the

following indicators are measurable pursuits that are recommended at each of the three milestones up

to 2034 as reported in Table 1. It is noteworthy that these three indicators should be pursued

simultaneously to achieved desire goal of less than 5% urban housing deficit for the State.

i. Mortgaged Fund Coverage

Currently, the coverage of urban population in the State mortgaged fund is less than 0.5% which implies

that only 31,313 households out of the 626,268 urban household population that has so far benefited

from the State mortgaged fund initiatives, this figure is grossly poor and fell below international

standards aimed at provision of safe and affordable housing to up to 60% urban population by 2030. Our

projection here is that by 2026, the coverage of the State mortgaged fund should be 15% which means

105,761 households should be enrolled and accessed the mortgage finance options. By 2030, the

coverage should be increased to 25% urban population which is estimated to be around 206,448
 households and it is expected that the coverage should be increased to 65% which translates to 628,663

urban households’ population by 2034.

Table 1: Key Performance Indicators in achieving not more than 5% urban housing deficit by 2034
Indicators Baseline 2023 Milestone 2026 Milestone 2030 Milestone 2034

Mortgage Fund Coverage <5% 15% 25% 65%

(% access per 100 urban

household population)

Financed Low cost <5:1000 14:1000 24:1000 41:1000

Housing units (ratio of

units per 1000 urban

household population)

Building cost (% building 1900% 1000% 500% 300%

cost per annual average

household income)

Source: populated using relevant statistics of Imo State

ii. Financed Low cost housing units

According to the estimated figure derived through the National Housing Fund and State managed

housing schemes, the financed housing units stood at only 3,068 as at 2023 spreading across the urban

and emerging cities in the State financed through federal, state and public private initiatives. This figure

is too meager as it translates to only 5 housing units to 1000 urban households; the projection of our

goal is that there should be additional 7,932 housing units fully implemented, commissioned and

transferred to the beneficiaries by 2026. This would afford the state to drive up the financed housing

unit ratio to 14:1000 urban households’ population. This implies average of addition 2,644 housing units

per annum for the next three years. By 2030, the indicator should have achieved a milestone of
additional 10,000 housing units to have 20,000 housing units fully commissioned and transferred to

beneficiaries in order to arrive at 24:1000 urban households’ population. In the final milestone, the

indicator is expected to reach 40,000 housing units for the estimated 967,174 urban households’

population implying additional 20,000 housing units to improve the financed low housing ratio to

41:1000 housing population by 2034.

iii. Building Cost:

Going by the minimum wage of N30,000 per employee in the State. It is estimated that annual average

household income will be N720,000 for a five-member households and 2 individuals economically

engaged. The baseline study showed that it takes about N3,500,000 outside land acquisition to build an

affordable a two-bedroom housing unit. Also, the average family budget of 25% saving for housing

amount to N180,000 per annum. This indicated that with the current estimates, building cost ratio to

household income is 1900% which could translate to mean that it will take a household average of 19

years on consistent 25% saving to own a house given that the current 15% annual inflation rate is not

considered and this means that reducing housing deficit of the urban population is a daunting task

except deliberated and measurable efforts is made to reduce building cost. Our projection is that by

2026, the building cost – household income ratio should be reduce to 1000%, then to 500% and 300% by

2030 and 2034 respectively.

In actualizing the goal of achieving not more than 5% urban housing deficit by 2034, the document tried

to design indicators whose measurement performance would be used to gauge the success achieve at

each of the milestones. More so, the document set aside the drivers and pillars in form of programmes,

projects and policy actions that the governments and the relevant stakeholders should prioritized at

each of level of performance to arrive at the next milestone towards achieving the desire goal of less

than 5% urban housing deficit by 2034. These drivers and pillars are presented in Table 2.
 Table 2: Milestones Drivers and Pillars
Indicators Milestone 2026 Milestone 2030 Milestone 2034
Mortgage Fund i. Establishment of Imo State Housing i. Release of N100 Billion intervention fund into i. Embark on N1trillion recapitalization
Coverage (% access Fund with capitalization of N500 Billion the Imo Housing Fund to provide diverse of the State Housing Fund through
per 100 urban ii. Partner with at least 5 Primary mortgage products for contributors within the sales of stocks to the general public
household Mortgage Banks to deliver 2000 housing low and medium income strata. ii. Engage additional 20 estate
population): units per annum. ii. Drive the public - private initiatives to deliver developers to deliver 7500 housing
Baseline: < 5% per iii. Embark on Sensitization and public 5000 additional housing units within the next units within 3 next years.
100 urban household enlightenment programmes to enrol four years to be shared on Rent to Own
population 100,000 contributors into Imo Housing programme to the contributors.
Fund. iii. Embark on public sensitization to achieve
150,000 additional enrolles from the non-
formal sector.
Financed Low cost i. Enlist 15 new private estate developers i. Implement State affordable housing delivery
i. Unbundle N150 billion housing fund
Housing units (ratio on PPP arrangements to deliver 2000 programme to deliver 500 housing units forfor PMBs and Estate developers to
of units per 1000 housing units in each of the 3 senatorial govt employees within low and middle through
build additional 2000 low and middle
urban household zones of the State. MoU with Estate Developers, Labour Unions income housing units in major cities
population) ii. Establish N100 billion housing insurance and PMBs. around the 27LGAs in Imo State.
Baseline: coverage to provide security to the ii. Sign MoU with development partners to ii. Sign N2 trillion MoU with
<5:1000urban investment of the PMBs. provide N250 billion bond to finance 2500 Development partners such as AfDB,
household diverse housing products with specific 65%IMG and WHO for long-term financing
population coverage of middle and low income of housing projects to cover 250,000
contributors. urban households within 5 years plan.
Building cost (% of i. Amendment of the Land administration i. Provide N100 billion to contributors through
i. Earmark N1 billion for housing cost
annual average and registration processes to reduce cost Cooperative Housing Devt Loan that would be
subsidy programme from Imo Min. of
household income) of land title registration by 55% and accessible to cooperative societies at 3% Housing and Urban Devt for 10000
Baseline: 1900% of ensure issuance of 1000 C of O per annum. interest rate. individuals whose income fall below
annual average ii. Provide N50 billion housing construction minimum wage.
household income fund through Imo Housing and Urban Devt ii. Sign MOUs with PMBs, Estate
at 5% interest rate to individuals that are developers and non-formal cooperative
not covered under the Imo Housing Fund. for deliver 1000 cooperative housing
unit per annum.
1
https://citypopulation.de/en/nigeria/admin/NGA017__imo/; 2World Bank (2021). Urban population (% of total population) – Nigeria; 3World
Bank World Development Indicators (2021) and 4United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT)(2021)