Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements & Housing

acash

Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements and Housing
ACASH

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Shipping Container as an Alternative Housing Solution in Nigeria

The ever-growing population of Lagos state, Nigeria has brought a challenge in housing which has resulted in a housing deficit of 5 million people in Lagos and 17 million on a national scale. An alternative solution of using habitable shipping container homes to support the construction capacity of conventional construction method that lacks the capacity to the deliver the annual required number of houses, is readily available but not common to many Lagos residents as they are familiar with temporary shipping container structures such as kiosk, site offices and emergency shelters. This study was set out to understand the perspective, concerns and requirements in using shipping containers as an alternative solution in providing affordable and decent housing from a societal point of view of low and middle-income earners majorly affected by prominent housing deficit within Lagos and also the viability of the alternative solution for tropical region like Lagos in terms of cost, quality, and affordability when compared to conventional building methods. The result shows that the choice of Lagos resident in accepting shipping container homes as alternative is not dependent on their educational background, age, or income, rather it is more societal status issue where people will accept what is commonly used by the society at large. Recommendations where made on how best to deliver this shipping container alternative home to Lagos residents and how Lagos state government can also support in the implementation. Adequate housing is a significant need for human survival, and a fundamental right according to article 25 of the United Nations human right declaration of 1948. (United Nations, 2014). However, several international conventions on adequate housing as a right as been signed and ratified by Nigeria, but Section 16 sub section 2(d) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria provides that the State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that suitable and adequate shelter is accessible for all citizens, which is not stated as a right , rather as an objective of the state, making it non-justiciable in accordance to section 6 sub section 6(c) of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria. (Chegwe, 2014). This simply connotes that actualization of socio-economic right of Chapter 2 of the Nigerian constitution by the Nigerian government cannot be judicially obligated. (Diala, 2012) The demand for affordable and adequate housing has been on the increases over the past few years in Nigeria. In a recent housing summit held in Abuja, it was made known that as at 1991 the housing deficit was estimated at 7 million and 17 million in 2017 which has been a major source of concern for the Nigerian government in finding drastic solution in solving the problem. (Okafor, 2017).

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