Affordable housing in Nigeria’s slums: combating infectious diseases and advancing SDG 3

Purpose Studies showed that sustainable cities and communities through affordable and accessible housing provision have a significant positive relation with good health and well-being (Sustainable Development Goal 3). Therefore, Nigeria’s slum locations may promote infectious diseases if not addressed. Extant literature about the issues facing affordable housing provision in slum locations is scarce. This study investigated the issues and proffered suggestions to improve affordable housing provision in slum locations and, by extension, improve mitigating infectious diseases and achieving Goal 3. Design/methodology/approach The researchers utilised a qualitative research design using a phenomenology approach. This study employed snowball and purposive sampling techniques to select the experts, and 40 interviews were conducted to achieve saturation across five major cities in Nigeria. This study utilised a thematic analysis of the primary data and findings presented in the themes. Findings The findings reveal that infectious/contagious diseases spread faster in slum locations. Lax slum housing upgrading programmes, weak institutional framework, inadequate housing funding, rural-urban migration, inadequate affordable housing policy, lax political will, absence of basic infrastructure in sub-urban locations, high rate of unemployment and lack of national housing database were identified as the issues facing Nigeria’s affordable housing provision in slum locations. Findings suggested measures to mitigate infectious/contagious diseases through affordable housing provision and, by extension, improve achieving Goal 3. Originality/value Besides pro-affordable housing programmes, governments should strengthen public housing institutions by upgrading slum locations with affordable housing, providing basic amenities in sub-urban locations and establishing a sustainable institutional framework to boost affordable housing.