Study of Housing Finance Access for Low-Income Earners in Maiduguri, Borno State

This study examines the accessibility of housing finance for low-income earners in Maiduguri, Borno State, North East Nigeria, a city that is in the process of post-insurgency recovery and faces acute housing finance challenges that combine general systemic barriers with conflict-specific vulnerabilities. Maiduguri's housing need is significant given displacement and the destruction of residential properties during the Boko Haram crisis, yet formal housing finance access for low-income households remains extremely limited. The study employs a qualitative descriptive approach, conducting in-depth interviews with 40 low-income household heads seeking to acquire or reconstruct housing, 15 officers from microfinance institutions and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria Borno State office, and 5 staff from the Borno State Housing Corporation. Purposive sampling was used to include both internally displaced persons and non-displaced Maiduguri residents. Findings reveal that commercial mortgage products are inaccessible to virtually all respondents due to minimum income requirements, collateral demands for property documentation that many lack, and interest rates incompatible with low-income repayment capacity. The National Housing Fund contribution system is known to fewer than 20 percent of respondents, with awareness particularly low among informal sector workers. Microfinance housing loans exist in two institutions but at very short tenors and high rates unsuitable for substantive housing investment. The study recommends establishing a conflict-affected community housing fund with concessional rates and flexible documentation requirements, managed through community-based savings groups. Keywords: housing finance, low-income, Maiduguri, affordability, mortgage.