The rising spate of building collapse in Nigeria, especially in Lagos, the economic nerve centre of the country, is putting worrying shivers down the spine of investors, the government and the general public primarily in regard to the enormous financial, economic and social implications. According to documents from the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, at least 271 buildings have collapsed in Nigeria over the past ten years, accounting for 50 per cent of the 541 reported cases in Nigeria between 1974 and 2022.
The incidence of buildings collapsing in Nigeria has gotten to an alarming level that it comes as no surprise that the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction ranked Nigeria number one in the frequency and intensity of building collapse in Africa, a poor representation of a country striving for sustainable development and economic growth.