Over a span of 20 years, Nigeria has witnessed a significant increase in building collapse that has resulted in loss of lives and livelihoods, as well as the displacement of families. In fact, over this period, the country ranked number one in the frequency and intensity of building collapse in Africa. The collapse of a 21-story building in November 2021 in Ikoyi, Lagos—which killed at least 45 people and seriously injured 10 others—is just one example of the severity of building and structural collapse in the country.

Anecdotal evidence from various government agencies and a review of literature revealed that between 1974 and 2019, over 221 buildings collapsed across various Nigerian cities and more than half of the collapses occurred in the economic hub of Lagos. In fact, Lagos experienced 167 reported cases between the years 2000 and 2021, 78.4 percent of which were residential buildings, 12.8 percent were commercial, and the remaining 8.8 percent were institutional buildings (Figures 1 and 2). This spate of building collapse displaced more than 6,000 households with an estimated total loss of $3.2 trillion worth of property.

Apart from generally known causes of building collapse, such as natural hazards, material fatigue, aging, terrorist attacks, and design flaws, human error in construction has become a prominent factor in this problem as well. In fact, many of the documented cases of building collapse in Nigeria include individuals’ or building developers’ errors of bypassing basic professional procedures of getting building plan approval, engaging the services of unqualified or unskilled builders, the use of defective or substandard building materials, illegal conversion of existing structures, and alterations of approved building permits. For instance, regarding the Ikoyi collapse, the general manager of Lagos State Building Control Agency stated that the owners had gotten approval for 15 floors but added six more on top of the original approval.

Notably, there are neither federal nor state regulations in Nigeria that mandate that individuals or building developers consult certified professionals for building construction. Consequently, professional bodies are unable to fulfill oversight functions, paving the way for unqualified or unskilled builders to oversee construction projects in the country. In a similar vein, the failure of government at different levels to prosecute the culprits of building collapse has solidified a preponderance of substandard building materials and an increasing level of impunity among building developers.

Read the full article about disaster risk reduction in Nigeria by Olasunkanmi Habeeb Okunola at Brookings.