By Yemi Adedeji, Abuja
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described housing deficit in Nigeria as overwhelming, noting that it would take the construction of one million housing units annually for the country to meet the deficit.
He stated this while commissioning 10, 000 housing units at River Park estate in Abuja.
The former president noted that there is no accurate number of what the housing deficit is but it varies from five million to ten million.
He explained that the magnitude of the housing deficit in the country birthed the Private Public Partnership (PPP) into estate development as a way of savaging the situation.
“Even if you take the very conservative number of five million and we produce half a million housing units per annual, it will take us more than ten years to meet our present housing deficit. That will take us near year 2030, but judging by our present performance, can we produce half million housing per annual?
“But we also need to know that 30 years from now, our population from year 2045 would have doubled to 400 million. Even if it is 10 occupants per housing units, we will need 20 million additional housing units,” he said.