The recent collapse of a 21-story building on Gerard Road, Ikoyi area of Lagos State and the consequent loss of precious lives in that debacle has once again brought to fore the persisting unresolved issues plaguing the built environment sector in Nigeria and the inadequacy of existing measures put in place to safeguard the life and property of citizens.

Over the past two decades, the number of collapsed buildings in Lagos State alone has risen to worrisome levels and this once again raises the question of whether Nigeria is behind in enacting adequate laws to regulate this crucial sector or whether adequacy is not the problem but rather that the laws are more honored in their breach than in their observance.

Despite Nigeria’s huge housing deficit, and the need to encourage foreign direct investment into the built environment sector, investors and citizens continue to encounter various challenges in obtaining building permits from regulators. A four-year assessment of business regulations by World Bank around the 36 Nigerian States and FCT Abuja in four regulatory areas including dealing with construction permits, discloses Kaduna, Enugu, Abia, Lagos and Anambra as States showing the largest advancement toward the global good practice frontier…