CBPM 2025 · Vol. 2025, Issue 1

Untapped Resources: Locally Available Building Materials in South-Western Nigeria

Olugbenga Fashuyi and Amira Osman

Keywords: Local building materials, south-western Nigeria, untapped, perception, bamboo

Abstract

Although Nigeria is endowed with a plethora of local building materials that have low carbon prints and are environmentally friendly, the materials remain largely untapped. Instead, the nation's construction industry is fraught with high-cost imported materials, most of which are non-eco-friendly, heightening environmental degradation, and undesirable in the local climate and culture. Against this backdrop, this study examined reasons for the underutilisation of local building materials resources that could have positively impacted the nation's construction industry. The research method is quantitative, using primary data from community members and stakeholders in the construction industry. The data were collected through online survey questionnaires and analysed for descriptive statistics across the six (6) south-western states. The sample size was calculated from selected urban districts of the study area, taking the acceptable error 'e' to be 0.05, and 'z', the standard variate at 95% as 1.96. Members of the construction industry were sought through the faculties of built-environment and engineering in the six states. Responses were downloaded and analysed into tables and charts with Microsoft Excel. The study showed that despite the abundance of local building resources in south-western Nigeria, they are not readily available in usable form and that users' perception of them has adversely impacted their use. The study, however, showed that the materials are affordable and require only limited skills for construction. In this way, policy interventions and discussions can enhance the use of local building materials to promote housing development.