Rising hope for housing poverty in Africa

The story of the housing and homeownership in Africa, particularly Nigeria, always sounds like a fairy tale because it is difficult to believe sometimes that in a country like Nigeria, there are just a little above 10 million housing units and over 80 percent of these units are self-built without any form of mortgage.

Here, the rental market is not only active but also profitable and  one of the major features of the rental market is the mindless demand for advance rent payment for one, two and, in some cases, three years.

This has become the norm and has been made possible because of the housing poverty in the continent where in Nigeria, for instance, the housing deficit is in excess of 170 million units in a country of 160 million people.

In an environment like this, expectation is always high among the low income group when any government, individual or a group of concerned individuals throw up an idea of social housing which holds promise for rent payment that considers affordability.

Expectations were high and hope was strong at the end of a forum in Lagos during which  UNHomes Limited launched its social housing initiative, announcing that it was working towards providing housing units where tenants would pay rent on monthly basis.

Chudi Kalu, co-founder of UNHomes, who made this announcement, decried the increasing level of housing problem in Africa and the high rent being charged by landlords especially in the cities, saying it was depressing for landlords to ask tenants to pay for two, three or four-year rent at once.

According to him, the mission of his company is to turn ordinary families into home owners through a pro-active social housing initiative. “Our goal is to deliver one million housing units by 2020, solve housing poverty through creative mortgage solutions. UNHomes plans to achieve these by building decent and affordable housing for Africans and also empower people,” he said.

Kalu further explained that “UNHomes Limited is a social enterprise that gives under-privileged families from anywhere in the world a chance to own a house in order to improve the welfare of families and to develop new communities.

UNHomes is full of solutions to the housing crisis in Africa. Housing solution runs by innovative, grassroots projects and organisations that are working to empower, educate, and build houses for families in developing or underdeveloped economies using the power of network.”

 Speaking on ‘The role of media in solving housing poverty in Africa’, he said,

 “Africa’s housing problem is bigger than an individual and only a network of Africans can solve it. A significant problem we face is what we can call ‘Housing Poverty’.  A reasonable percentage of African population lives in slums.

“The New York Times estimates that Lagos is now at least 22 million in population, surpassing Cairo as Africa’s largest city, but two thirds of the population are slum dwellers, meaning that 14 million Lagosians are slum dwellers. The situation in Lagos is an issue of concern also as about 1.2 million Lagosians are landlords while the remaining 18.8 million live as tenants.”

The co-founder said that UNHomes was formed to galvanise Africans with the sole aim of influencing the choice of houses and home ownership structure available, help Africans become landlords in principle and empower Africans financially through its social housing initiatives.

“The strategy is to make everyone a landlord through a social network thereby making the fight to ensure every family owns a decent house is achieved with ease. Hence, we adopt a proactive measure that allows everyone who desires a house to play a part in the marketing process,” he said.

This Social Housing Conference is organised by United Nations, World Bank, ArkBridge Integrated Limited, SME Funds, UNFCC to create an amazing opportunity for Africa to become landlords using a simple and dynamic approach to housing.

Ruth Obih, managing director/CEO 3Invest Limited, said lack of infrastructure, low adherence to regulations, land ownership system, lack of operational housing  finance sector, poor maintenance culture among others have over the years remained serious challenges to the housing sector in Nigeria and on the African continent.

Obih explained that with constant report on the problem, government and other necessary organisations and stakeholders would realise the urgent need to respond to the housing needs of citizens.

Chuka Uroko