A CRITICAL REVIEW OF NIGERIA'S NATIONAL HOUSING POLICY: EVOLUTION, STATE, AND EMERGING CHALLENGES

This paper aimed to review the state, evolutionary trends and challenges of national housing policy in Nigeria. Housing policy is considered as a tool for national development. The paper constitutes three segments, where the first segment expressed state of housing policy in Nigeria which encompasses addressing fundamental issues like land ownership, housing finance, housing construction and delivery. Evolutionary trends of housing policy and developmental stages in all regime of government were presented in the second segment. In addition, the third segment assessed and identified the problems that are associated with the implementation of housing policies in Nigeria which might include but not limited to poor administration, inadequate funding, insufficient infrastructural amenities, as well as inadequate housing finance. It is therefore suggested that there is need for periodic review of the housing policies, efficient financing and effective implementation of housing policies should be adopted by the government at all levels. Also the use of local materials should be encouraged as well as the provision of low cost houses in urban and rural places should be employed for national development.