Governments have been urged to develop integrated affordable-housing and informal-settlement strategies.

Besides, they are urged to establish measurable annual targets for affordable and social housing by involving builders, quantity surveyors and other relevant professionals from project conception through completion and operation.

Alao Abdulrazaq Ayo and Chika Yesmeen Alao, both builders, in their article on “Beyond Shelter: An Integrated Approach To Informal Settlements, Waste Management and Affordable Housing in Nigeria,” informal settlements reflected the complex intersection of housing poverty, informal urbanisation, inadequate infrastructure, environmental degradation, land-use pressure, weak planning and limited access to affordable housing finance.

They said it was important to look beyond the physical appearance of informal settlements and address the economic, social, environmental, planning, construction and governance systems that produce and sustain them.

“The housing challenge is not solved when we put a roof over a person’s head; it is solved when we create a safe, affordable, healthy and dignified environment in which that person can live and prosper, the duo said.

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They expressed a strong belief that Nigeria cannot solve its housing crisis by constructing houses alone, noting that housing is an ecosystem comprising land, secure tenure, affordable finance, appropriate design and construction, infrastructure, transportation, water, sanitation, drainage, electricity, waste management, employment, effective planning, building safety, environmental sustainability and community participation.

“A housing unit may be affordable at the point of construction and yet become unaffordable through high maintenance, energy, transportation and operational costs. True affordability must therefore be measured across the whole life of the building,” Yesmeen Alao said.

The duo said sustainable housing is not merely a building, but a safe, healthy, affordable, productive and resilient community, urging that Nigeria must therefore build not only houses, but the economic, social and environmental systems that make those houses truly habitable and sustainable.