🏘️ What Slums Teach Us About Urban Housing
During a recent visit to Lagos, my foreign companions were eager to see Makoko, the well-known waterside community where children commute to school by boat. Their curiosity didn’t surprise me: a quick internet search of Lagos almost always shows images of this informal settlement.
Cities across Africa often carry the global perception of their slums, a notion highlighted in a recent piece by The Economist. With nearly half of Nigeria’s population living in informal settlements, the prevalence of such communities is significant, though Nigeria isn’t the only country facing this challenge.
I’ve personally experienced life in such environments, having once lived in temporary housing during my time at the University of Lagos when student protests disrupted access to formal accommodation. For many, informal settlements are the only option due to proximity to schools or workplaces and the prohibitive cost of formal housing.
While these communities come with undeniable challenges like overcrowding, poor sanitation, and safety concerns, they also offer valuable lessons in space efficiency, construction innovation, and affordability.
📍 View Makoko on Google Maps
Key Lessons from Informal Settlements
1. Space Optimization
Informal housing typically uses minimal space more efficiently than standard developments. Units are divided into very small rentable sections, allowing residents to pay only for what they use. This reduces costs, though it often leads to cramped conditions.
2. Adaptable Building Materials
Structures in places like Makoko are built from whatever is accessible and affordable such as wood, corrugated metal, bamboo, or plastic. Unlike uniform concrete-heavy urban developments, this adaptability encourages design innovation. Low-cost housing solutions must embrace such flexibility while ensuring safety standards.
3. Flexible Financing & Rent Models
Formal rental markets often demand 6–24 months of rent upfront, locking many out of housing. In slums, rent is typically paid weekly or monthly, making it accessible to people with unstable or low incomes. Developers also avoid high land-purchase costs since most slums exist on land without formal titles.
A New Model: Affordable, Dignified Housing
These elements of space efficiency, material flexibility, and accessible financing can inspire a new housing model for urban Nigeria:
Compact, functional spaces such as co-living layouts with shared kitchens and utilities
Durable, low-cost materials like shipping containers, compressed earth blocks, or modular units
Flexible rent structures such as weekly, monthly, or discounted long-term leases
Mixed formats ranging from shared dormitories to small private units
Public-private partnerships where government contributes land and investors fund construction to reduce rental costs
Beyond Housing: Enabling Social Impact
Affordable housing can double as a gateway to broader inclusion:
Registration for housing can link with digital ID enrollment, opening doors to banking, healthcare, and microfinance
Digital rent payments can help residents build a credit history, supporting access to small loans
Integration into these systems can gradually pull residents into the formal economy
Final Thoughts
By learning from the economic logic of informal settlements and adapting their strengths, we can design urban housing that is affordable, scalable, and responsive to the realities of life in Lagos and other African cities.
📍 Explore Makoko on Google Maps
