Sunday, October 9, 2011

THE ROLE OF RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT HOUSING PROVISION IN NIGERIA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Research establishments

The roles of research establishments

Housing problems in Nigeria

Research establishments and housing provision in Nigeria

Nigerian Building and Road Research Institutes and Its Achievements

Problems militating against the use of applied result

Recommendations

Conclusion

References


INTRODUCTION

Shelter is regarded as one of the basic needs of human being. Despite its importance, majority of the populace finds it difficult to acquire, or own a house of their own due to the cost. And most importantly, the low income capacity of the masses. Housing has been a very disturbing component in the social and economic quality of any developing nation. The situation in Nigeria is a typical example as people/masses continue to years for shelter.

Owing to developing any country or nation, the tradition of ascertaining the fact on any issue is done through proper study and fact findings, which can otherwise be called research. There are many institute of research which focuses on certain sector or field. Most of these research institutes are established by the government to serve as its eye to be able to monitor developments in the nation, and know the level and acceptability of developments.

RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT

There are chains of research establishments that are set up by the government to help in nation building. Such research establishments are FIIRO, NISER, etc other research are carried out by individuals may be through assignments in tertiary institutions, or self sponsored/self willing or through corporate organizations. These research establishments by the government are designed for a particular field or sector.

There have been several researches carried out to help in housing provisions that is on the statistics of houses that was provided in the past, how many people were able to get those houses provided, either directly or indirectly and so on. And also there are researchers carried out on building materials, and so many that were not even looked into.

THE ROLES OF RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENTS

Some of the roles of research establishment is to, through research contributes directly or indirectly to economic progress and to the quality of life. It performs the role of an active change agent. It helps to transform the production of goods and services. Also, it acts as catalyst in the transfer of knowledge to industry and government.

HOUSING PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA

According to (Alabi, 2009), the problem of housing varies from one country to the other. Some countries tackled the problem in a pragmatic manner whilst others have shy away from the problem. In Nigeria, home ownership and the need for property development has been increasing with the population growth.

He also stated that the rate of change over from a world of rural people to that of city dwellers coupled with sudden increase in national earnings brought about a higher taste for standards. According to him, housing which is often defined as a multidimensional bundle of services is also a bundle of contradictious and paradoxes.

Nigeria, like many other countries is confronted with both qualitative and quantitative housing problems, which is due to a combination of social, economic, demographic and technological factors, which have resulted in an increase in demand that cannot be matched by supply (Alabi, 2009).

RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT AND HOUSING PROVISION IN NIGERIA

Due to the nature, vision and mission of research institutes, it is imperative to know that the prospect of housing provision in Nigeria can only come alive through the research, couple with other sectors that should be involved. The research institutes such as Nigerians Institutes of Social and Economic Research, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute and other agencies like Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) Building Material Producers Association of Nigeria, and so many other research agencies and government parastatals..

The rate of housing demand in Nigeria can only be countered with massive hands on deck, and with research establishments serving as the information channel on what findings on the housing provision is.

Most of the research in the past as regard to housing provision is majorly from the academic institutions. It is very disappointing there has been no specified research institutes devoted to housing provision except for those that are charged to look into housing indirectly such as NBRRI.

NIGERIAN BUILDING AND ROAD RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND ITS ACHIEVEMENTS

It is believed that the rate at which the cost of housing provision is increasing need to be curtailed to enable easy mass production and at low rates of housing for the masses.

This gave birth to the establishment of organizations like building material producers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institutes.

The BUMPAN was built around two key stakeholders, the Federal Ministry of Industry and the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute. And these actors are enjoined to:

- Identify location of local materials available for the manufacturer of building components and explore their effective utilization for building construction with a view to achieving reduction in cost to meet the target price and make housing affordable to majority of Nigerians.

- Identify building materials technology source, processing, processing and uses in Nigeria as well as building materials classification and associated small and medium scales by products,

- Make suggestions for the promotion of small and medium scale industries to face the challenges of the envisaged mass production of houses.

- Identify problems associated with accessing loanable funds from SMIEIS by small and medium scale industries and proffer solutions;

- Work out modalities for the popularization and transfer of production and construction techniques from research to the real estate developers and others users to ensure continuous availability of locally sourced and cheaper building materials to service the mass production under the new urban development and housing policy (2002).

- Mobilize and sensitize stakeholders and the general public on the funding and investment opportunities in the building materials industry, availability of local raw materials technology and manufacturing processes. (Aguluka, 2003).

The work was divided into two, but the NBRRI was charge with the available technology, sourcing processing and use. NBRRI provided information on; list of organizations involved in the production of various types of building materials, outlay of clay brick industries in Nigeria, location of limestone deposits for lime production in Nigeria, Analysis of alternative building materials as compared with conventional ones for building purposes, building stone materials and applications, and so many others (Agboola, 2006). The NBRRI has developed foundation and walling materials from stonecrete blocks and burnt claybricks and have developed a brick making machine which could be commercially produced. The institute has produced improved thatch fibre concrete and clay roofing tiles as roofing materials. Alternatives to cement as cementitious materials have been found in lime, rice husk as and blast furnace slag. The materials for making these are available in large quantities in Nigeria (Agboola, 2006).

Thus, the NBRRI developed materials for flooring, walling and roofing. It has equally identified its research products which are amendable to industrial production and suitable to meet Nigeria growing housing needs. It could then be justifiably asked why building materials are still very costly and largely imported in Nigeria despite these research achievements.

PROBLEMS MILITATING AGAINST THE USE OF APPLIED RESULTS

Prior to independence, cement was neither in high demand nor in wide use. Burnt bricks had its virtues as exemplified by the many colonial architectural buildings built of burnt bricks and still structurally sound as found in the older part of Lagos and in the core of Otta.

Houses built with cement have become the status symbol of an accomplished person in the Nigeria society and the society had almost lost the indigenous art of making burnt bricks. This is an external factor which has made the adoption of applied research results pretty difficult. Another factor often proffered is the attitude of architects and housing/building designers who do not encourage their clients in the use of local building materials by providing them with alternative to the conventional building materials like cement (Agboola, 2006).

RECOMMENDATIONS

According to Agbola (2006), the association (BUMPAN) must liase with all professional bodies such as, Nigerian institute of Architects (NIA), Nigeria Institute of Builder (NIOB), Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) and others that are involved in the construction industry on the patronage of local building materials. The BUMPAN must transcend the problem of information of NBRRI. Investor’s information of building materials research results should be targeted specifically to investors and industrialists. In this connection, market surveys of product uses acceptability are necessary accompaniment of the package of information to would be investors.

The research and developments must be embarking on using some of the tertiary as complements to NBRRI. These institutions should be funded by international agencies and NGO’s who are only willing to be partners in such endeavours provide the association is transparent and accountable (Agbola, 2006).

CONCLUSION

In view of the importance Research establishments and achievements so far, there should be full support of every association connected with housing provision to make headway. There is also need for more research works to be carried out on domestic building materials and on even new ones. All research institutions such as NBRRI should be adequately mobilized in this regard.


REFERENCES

Agbola Tunde (2006): “Production of Local Building Materials: The Challenges of and Benefits to Major Participants in the Nigerian Local Building Materials Industry”. Journal of Estate Surveying Research, Volume 1 Number 1. 2006.

Alabi, O. T (2009): “The Roles of non-governmental organizations in Housing Delivery in Nigeria, Journal of Estate Surveying Research, Volume 1 Number 2, 2009.

Goggle.com 6-04 -2010, “The Research Establishment in Nigeria”.


REFERENCES

A Lecture on Nigerian Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Challenges and Prospect. A paper presented by Union Homes REITS.

Oyebanji A. O (2003), Principles of Land Use Economic

Real Estate Investment Trusts: The Future for property investment from http://www.research @thealitheia.com, March 27, 2009.

1 comment:

  1. Usually I do not publish on sites, but I would like to say that this material really pressured me to do so! Thanks, really amazing material.
    Nigeria Business Directory

    ReplyDelete