ASSESSMENT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MASS HOUSING SCHEME IN ABUJA

ASSESSMENT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MASS HOUSING SCHEME IN ABUJA

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

As the scale of the housing challenge in the developing world is increasing at an alarming pace, the need for real action to address affordable housing supply is becoming increasingly critical. To deal with this challenge governments and local authorities are updating their knowledge on global housing policy approaches in order to formulate effective policy instruments. Over the years Nigeria has developed and implemented a number of housing policies and strategies, in an attempt to address the housing of its citizens and particularly the low-income group (Abdullahi 2010).

Abuja has been experiencing very rapid urbanization. This is largely due to urban growth associated with natural population growth and rural-urban migration driven by rapid socio-economic changes and development, tied to the movement of the seat of Federal Government of Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja in 1991. However, this growth has not been matched with simultaneous provision of adequate housing infrastructure.

The demand for basic infrastructure services has also grown over the years, quickly outstripping the supply capacity of existing assets which manifested in the acute shortage of dwelling units and resulted in overcrowding, high rents, poor urban living conditions. Many years of under investment and poor maintenance have left Abuja with a significant infrastructure deficit which is holding back the city development and economic growth. Abuja needs to make massive investments beyond the means available to government in order to close its yawning infrastructure gap. The Federal Government believes that the private sector can play an important role in providing some of this new investment through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Therefore, the need to provide adequate, suitable and equitable housing has remained a major priority of the government, since that piecemeal housing can never solve the housing requirement of the country estimated at about 16 million units (Gemade, 2010).

With the declining financial resources of government on housing delivery and other infrastructural services, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) has been widely advocated for housing and infrastructure development in Nigeria as part of recent housing reforms. The National Housing Policy (NHP, 2006) marked a significant transition of the government to position itself as enabler and facilitator in housing delivery. It advocated increased participation by the private sector and emphasized government’s role in creating conditions to boost housing supply by eliminating legal and regulatory constraints and supporting appropriate infrastructure investments.

This entailed a notable shift in the public sector role from direct housing provision to engaging the private sector in constructing, financing, operating and maintaining housing units. Deriving from international documents such as the Global Strategy for Shelter to the year 2000 (UNCHS, 1992), and later Enabling Markets to work (World Bank, 1993), subsequent policy documents like Nigeria National Housing Policy (NHP, 2006) emphasized the policy thrust of simultaneously enhancing and changing the roles of the public and private sectors. This new role requires that real estate developers learn how to build houses to particular price targets, so that members of different income groups can aspire to the status of homeownership.

The purpose of all these policies is to ensure that all Nigerians especially the low income groups own or have access to decent, safe and healthy housing accommodation that would be achieved through a private sector led housing delivery system anchored on mass construction of houses and strong mortgage finance (NHP, 2006).

All these areas have their accompanied housing environment to accommodate the bulk of its residence. Phase Three has six residential districts and four sector centers. However, the detailed land use plan for phases III and IV are still begin processed, and the planned and unplanned population for these areas are causing overcrowding of the built up areas.

1.2     STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM

Mass Housing programme involving the public-private partnership was launched in the year 2000, towards providing adequate housing stock for the growing population of the federal capital territory. Under this arrangement, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is expected to provide land and required primary infrastructure to the housing development sites while the developers provide the houses and tertiary infrastructure according to the approved specifications of the FCT authority. However, the implementation of mass housing programme has been ongoing for a long time now but there does not seem to be much progress with respect to adequate provision of infrastructure and home ownership by the programme, indicating that critical gap exists between programme’s target and reality.

The study therefore sets to answer the following questions.

1. What is the level of implementation of the mass housing delivery programme under the public private partnership in the FCT?
2. What are the factors affecting PPP mass housing delivery programme in the FCT?

1.3     AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.3.1 AIM

The aim of this project is to carry out an assessment of the federal government mass housing scheme in Abuja.

1.3.2 OBJECTIVES

The Specific objectives of this study include the following

1. To examine the concept and strategies of Housing Delivery in urban centers.
2. To examine the Mass Housing Policy and its requirement in the FCT.
3. To assess the implementation of the mass housing programme under the public private partnership in the FCT to determine level of success achieved so far.
4. To highlight the factors for the implementation of mass housing programme in the FCT.
5. To offer suggestions towards improvement in the implementation of the mass housing programme.

1.4     SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF STUDY

The study will focus on public private partnership mass housing programme in phase III and IV of Federal Capital City (FCC) Abuja, which commenced in the year 2000.

It will also evaluate the implementation of the programme in housing delivery in the FCT between years 2000 to 2010. The study is limited by unavailability or unwilling attitude of most stakeholders to give necessary data for the research.

1.5     DEFINITION OF TERMS

HOUSING: Housing is defined as the process of providing functional shelter in a proper setting within a neighborhood supported by sustainable maintenance of the built environment for the day- to-day living and activities of individuals and families within the community (FRN,2006).

MASS HOUSING: This refers to a form of housing provision in which houses are built in large number or quantity in a particular area.

HOUSING DELIVERY PROGRAMME: Housing programmes, are specific strategies usually initiated to increase the housing stock in a country. They are instruments for implementing housing policies.

HOUSING DELIVERY SYSTEM: The housing delivery system involves a complex process which flows in stages and in a sequential series to produce a housing unit or units (Agbola, 1998).

PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: Wallace, (1998) defined public-private partnerships as arrangements where development is undertaken with a combination of not-for-profit, private and public participations of programs.

1.6     THE STUDY AREA

It was in 1976 that Federal Military Government led by Late General Murtala Mohammed enacted Federal Capital Territory Act (FCT) established Abuja after it has been chosen to be the administrative capital of Nigeria and with solely administrative functions. This was after the failure of Lagos due to the problems of inadequate land space for future expansion, terrible traffic congestion, poor drainage, acute housing shortage and associated costs, unbearable ethnic influence etc. The planned period for the transfer was to be completed in 1986. However, it was on 12^th December, 1991, that the final movement of Federal capital to Abuja became a reality. Abuja is located in the geographical centre of Nigeria (Figure 1.1) and lying between latitudes 6o 45’ and longitudes 7o 39’ north of the equator. The land of approximately 8,000 square kilometres was carved out from the then neighbouring states of Kwara, Niger and Plateau to serve as the FCT and the Federal Capital City (FCC) to constitutes about 250 square metres. From its designed capacity the FCC will contain 3.2 million people when the development of the city is completed, however, the Abuja population has exploded to 6 million with less than 50% of development attained. The government vested all the land in FCT in the Federal Government of Nigeria. The government also created Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), as its agency responsible for the spatial planning and development of the FCT.