The goal of the Sustainable Housing Development (SHD) initiative as contained in Goal 11 of The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is “increased access to sufficient, safe and low-cost housing for the world’s poorest people residing in slums by the year 2030”. Nigeria currently the most populous nation in Africa has the record of fastest urbanizing as well the largest economy. However, pressures due to exponential population growth, massive rural-urban migration, and usage of inappropriate housing development technology, have created huge cases of slums and squatter settlements in the cities. The effect is the current 17million housing deficit confronting the nation. The SHD initiative was therefore a welcome panacea to alleviating the myriad challenges hindering development in a nation like Nigeria.

Findings revealed that the success of design, development, and implementation of the actions and plans of the SHD initiative, significantly depends on key Stakeholders, laws and policy regulations, and access to adequate finance. The study identified the Federal Government and Nigerian citizens as major stakeholders with the Land Use Act of (1978) as being most significant factor hindering SHD performance. Other challenges of SHD are housing affordability, lack of coherent policy framework, and poor state of R&D in the country. In spite of these challenges, the prospects of SHD are considered high as evidenced by Government’s interest in using the construction industry, anchored on Alternative Building Technologies (ABT), to diversify the Nigerian economy for improved living standards.