Nigeria has a record total of 553 building collapses between 1974 and April 2023.
This is going by the latest report by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild.
The Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG) had lamented frequent cases of building collapse in different parts of the country. It said urgent steps must be taken to stop this trend.
According to them, the incidence of building collapse became frequent because real estate and housing development have become an alternative booming business for investors following the collapse of the stock exchange and manufacturing in Nigeria.
The report shows that Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial capital city had recorded a high number of collapses with over 326 buildings caving in the last 49 years.
The data also showed that 326 collapsed buildings in Lagos represented 59.05 per cent of a total of 553 recorded cases in the country during this period.
The report stated, “Lagos State accounts for 59.05 per cent of the recorded incidents in Nigeria.
Taraba, Bayelsa, Gombe, and Yobe states had their first recorded collapse in 2022, and Zamfara had only one recorded building collapse, which happened in 2018.
Also, 1971, 1975, and 1981 were years that had no recorded collapses.”