After 20 years of work, many Africans still can’t own homes, expert reveals

For millions of workers across Africa, owning a home after decades of service remains a distant dream, as wages continue to lag behind rising construction costs, a construction management and housing affordability expert, Johnson Adetooto, has said.

Adetooto, a Nigerian-born expert based in Cape Town, said the continent’s housing crisis is no longer about
ambition but basic numbers, noting that “the arithmetic simply does not work for the average worker.”

According to him, conventional cement-based construction has priced formal housing out of reach for most salaried earners.

He cited Nigeria’s housing deficit, estimated at about 17 million units as of 2022, as a stark example of the
scale of the problem.

He added that with African cities growing at an average rate of 3.5 per cent yearly, pressure on land and
affordable housing supply is worsening.

“In many cities, a worker can spend 20 years in employment, earn salaries consistently, and still not afford the entry price of a safe, decent home,” Adetooto said.

Drawing from his work at the University of Cape Town, Adetooto pointed to sandbag building technology
as a viable pathway to cut housing costs.

The method uses durable polypropylene bags filled with local soil or sand, stacked and finished like
conventional walls, reducing reliance on cement-heavy blocks.

He explained that studies conducted in South Africa showed that modest homes using alternative
construction methods could be completed within four to seven days, compared to about 30 days for
conventional masonry.

Beyond speed and cost, Adetooto stressed that safety and comfort were key benefits of the technology.

“Plastered sandbag wall systems can provide fire resistance, while their high thermal mass helps regulate
indoor temperatures and reduce energy stress,” he said.

“This is public-interest engineering,” he added. “If we want workers to own decent homes within a working
lifetime, we must scale methods that reduce cost, improve safety, and fit climate realities.”

His housing work, however, has already moved beyond academia. Findings from his sandbag technology
study informed South Africa’s Department of Human Settlements and were piloted in Cape Town housing
projects.

With multiple peer-reviewed publications and international collaborations to his credit, Adetooto believes
alternative construction technologies, if supported by policy and public acceptance, could help ensure that
African workers do not retire without ever owning a home.