Sometimes you need a change of perspective to truly understand an object.
And Nigeria’s multi-dimensional housing problem illustrates this.

And since complex problems rarely have single-dimension solutions, maybe the breakthrough we need is in looking at the problem from multiple angles. 👇👇

We often treat housing, taxation, infrastructure, and economic development as separate outcomes.
Well, this is not far-fetched since we separated them into different ministries & agencies.

Whereas, in reality, housing and economic outcomes especially, are interwowen.
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So, here's a thought.
What if we weave housing and taxation into a mutually-dependent system?

Economic growth depends on taxation.
➡️ And, taxation hinges on transactions.
↪️ Transactions based on how people earn, spend, live, and meet their needs.

And those needs usually fall into three broad areas:
👉 Basic survival (food, shelter, water)
👉 Well-being (health, safety, security)
👉 Essential utilities (transport, electricity, roads)

At city-planning level, meeting these needs requires all of the physical, social, & economic forms of infrastructure working together with housing at the center of this system.
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So, if designed well, public housing can:
✅️ Stimulate economic activity,
✅️ Create transactions, and
✅️ Ultimately expand the tax base.

This proposal excludes how construction of housing itself contributes to the economy through: Construction jobs, manufacturing demand for materials, professional services, infrastructure investments, & local supporting business.

It assumes them as being part of the larger economic ‘activity’ captioned above.

So, for it to convert and deliver these outcomes, public housing must go beyond just building structures…
To getting these right:
📍 Asset value
📍 Infrastructure capacity
📍 Economic opportunity
📍 Transportation access
📍 Community health and safety
📍 Sense of place
📍 Socio-economic integration.

When these conditions align, housing too, goes more than shelter to becoming an engine for productivity, stability, and growth.

And afterward we layer another interesting policy idea…
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🟢 That tax compliance becomes the only criteria to access these (affordable) housing units.

Not as a punishment (well, maybe it should be) for evading taxes, but rather as a reward (& incentive) for compliance.
This will:
✅️ Reduce “long legs” in housing allocation,
✅️ Encourage consistent tax participation,
✅️ Improve documentation of residents for revenue collection,
✅️ Help governments forecast revenue reliably.

This policy shift could birth a self-reinforcing system:
More housing → more economic activity → more tax revenue → more housing.
↪️ Then rinse 'n' repeat.
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So, yes!
The housing crisis is complex, & is a combination of economic, fiscal, and social problems at the same time. So our approach must also be multi-dimensional.