Would Nigerians prefer to live in container homes?

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I was watching a documentary on Youtube about a home in Nigeria built with used shipping containers. Yes, you know those metal containers that are used to bring goods from Obodo Oyibo country to Nigeria using ships. You can actually use them to build a duplex house in Nigeria.

Already, there are videos of many people using containers to build their homes in Oyibo countries but it is not something common you'd see in Nigeria. Sure, you might have seen a couple of lock up or road side shops build with containers but I don't think I've seen any house or bungalow built with metal containers.

If it was really possible to build houses with shipping containers in Nigeria, I wonder if many Nigerians would be willing to live in them. Personally, for me I would be a bit worried about getting electrocuted by electricity while I'm sleeping assuming that an electric wire mistakenly touches the house. Anyway, from what I've seen, they do cover the metallic parts with wood and other things so that it gets insulated from electric shocks like a naked cable or thunder.

A second thing I would be bothered about before choosing to live in metal container home is on the issue of it's internal temperature. How hot can it get during the dry season? Would it not get hotter than a house built with cement? I mean, iron tends to get hotter than cement during a hot weather and imagine if one were inside without air conditioning. I learnt they build it with better ventilation in mind since they know that heat can be a problem. They construct the apartment using bigger windows for better cooling. Well, I'm not completely sure about that until I live inside one of such houses for a week during the dry season and see if it's safe enough to live in. I would also have to monitor the temperature and compare it with that of a home built with cement blocks. Let's just see which of them has better cooling without an air conditioner in the dry season.

One advantage though I've found out about container homes are that they are quite cheaper and faster to construct than a traditional home built with cement. You can get a duplex built with less than N17 million while a traditional cement duplex would probably cost about two times that. A bungalow home will be at about N5 million or more depending on how many rooms you'd want.

So, a rich Nigerian would not really opt for a container home but if you are someone who is willing to save money when building a house, you can consider including it as part of your building plan as it can help save cost. You may not build all the rooms or small buildings with containers or cement but you can use both parts to save cost.

As, I've said, I've not really seen any real building in Nigeria built with container homes except the one I've seen on YouTube and also one built by a Redeemed Christian church parish. Those of you who know that church know that they tend to try to save money when it comes to building church buildings. They tend to be a bit innovative and different by using containers, wood and tent covers to build their churches but they seem to have a lot of money to acquire land. Anyway, it is not exactly my business.

It is a good thing that many options are opening up to Nigerians on what material they can use to build their homes but it would really be better if the government is doing more to provide more affordable houses to people. Many people can hardly afford up to N10 million for their homes even as they approach retirement. Being an oil producing country, they should be some guarantee for older citizens especially to have their own homes after working so hard for many years as long as they can show evidence of paying taxes on their income. I think the Nigerian government is rich enough to handle that.

Posted by Felix Okoli on Tuesday October 29, 2019 at 20:1:52: