Amid macroeconomic challenges, there is growing apprehension among industry stakeholders that insecurity could exacerbate the housing deficit and impede investments in the real estate sector.
They acknowledged that the rising insecurity and tension arose from dissatisfaction among the population of jobless youth, activities of insurgents, bandits and herdsmen, which resulted in loss of lives and destruction of properties. Many people, who are already housed, had their house razed down, while those displaced from their communities are left without homes, thereby worsening the overall deficit.
Currently, the insecurity has spread to other parts of the country, including Benue, Adamawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Plateau States, and Abuja, as well as the South-West, especially Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Lagos and Osun where there had been resurgence of kidnappings. There were also similar cases in the south-south and southeast regions.
The Guardian investigations showed that some professional service providers, such as estate surveyors, town planners, land surveyors, developers, and even investors fear travelling to some parts of Nigeria because of the rising waves of kidnapping and banditry in the country. Tales of woe are replete of the rising cases of kidnapping and terror attacks on travelers on the highways. For instance, in the Federal capital Territory (FCT), some topnotch developers, investors and professionals have to pull out of sites.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of people forced to flee their homes has increased every year over the past decade and stands at the highest level since records began, a trend that can be only reversed by a new, concerted push towards peacemaking. By the end of 2021, those displaced by war, violence, persecution, and human rights abuses stood at 89.3 million, up eight per cent on a year earlier and well over double the figure of 10 years ago, according to UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report.
The report showed that over 3.2 million people are displaced, including about 2.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in north-eastern Nigeria. UNHCR said $848 million (N259,488,000,000) is needed to provide basic amenities such as water and shelter to the most vulnerable people inside Nigeria.