Housing stakeholders' perspective on offsite manufacturing in Nigeria

Despite several mitigation attempts, Nigeria is still facing a deficit of 17 million houses. Seminal literature argues that this problem is predominantly due to a myriad of issues, including high construction costs, skills shortages, slow pace of construction, lack of infrastructure and logistics, poor quality of available housing stock etc. Offsite manufacturing has been proffered as an innovative method for addressing such issues. This paper reports on the findings of a feasibility study, which investigated the Nigerian stakeholders' perceptions on the needs, promises and barriers of adopting offsite manufacturing in Nigeria. To achieve this, in-depth interviews were conducted with experts directly involved in housing delivery. Data gathered from the experts were analysed using exploratory thematic analysis. Nvivo software was used to transcribe and analyse research data. Findings from the in-depth interviews showed that the housing deficit in Nigeria is on the increase and nothing significant is being done at the moment. Stakeholders also posited that although OSM could improve housing delivery efforts in Nigeria, it is still considerably low; and this is as a result of a myriad of issues, such as negative local perception about OSM, client's resistance, lack of infrastructure and skills shortage. This study concludes that for OSM to be adopted in Nigeria, there is a need for proper sensitisation, collaboration and encouragement from government. This study presents additional understanding of OSM in Nigeria based on expert opinion, the results of which will become a stepping-stone for the development of a roadmap for the adoption of OSM in Nigeria. It is proffered that adopting OSM can help support housing delivery efforts in Nigeria, and may also leverage wider benefits to the construction industry and associated supply chain.