A report by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild has detailed how 47 building collapses were recorded across 14 states in Nigeria in 2024.
The guild, in the report, disclosed that building collapse rose to 640 from October 1974 to January 9, 2025.
According to the report, “In 2024 alone, there were 47 recorded building collapses across 14 states. Lagos continued to lead with 13 incidents, followed by Abuja with six, Anambra five, and Kano and Rivers with four each.
“Other states like Jigawa and Plateau recorded three collapses each, while Osun and Delta saw two each. Additionally, Niger, Abia, Edo, Oyo and Ebonyi each had one recorded collapse.
“Lagos State accounts for 55.15 per cent of the recorded incidents, significantly higher than other regions. Abuja follows as the second-highest contributor with 4.37 per cent, while Anambra ranks third with 4.06 per cent. Oyo and Kano occupy the fourth and fifth positions with 3.44 per cent and 3.28 per cent of the recorded incidents, respectively.
Taraba, Bayelsa, Gombe, and Yobe states had their first recorded building collapse in 2022. Other states such as Zamfara, Taraba, Yobe, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Sokoto, Gombe, Katsina, and Kebbi have had only one recorded building collapse since their inclusion in the data.
The guild, however, noted that 1971, 1975, and 1981 recorded no building collapse incidents.
It further stated that “However, despite the COVID lockdown in 2020, there were still 45 recorded collapses, with Lagos accounting for 18 (40 per cent) of those incidents. The year 2022 saw the highest number of collapses, with 62 nationwide, and Lagos again had the highest share, recording 20 (32 per cent) incidents.
In 2023, 52 collapses were recorded nationwide, with Lagos contributing 17 (33 per cent).
“The first recorded building collapse in Nigeria took place in October 1974 in Oyo State, where a multi-storey building caved in due to excessive loading, tragically killing 27 people. The tallest building collapse in the country occurred in Lagos on November 1, 2021, resulting in the death of 52 people.”
The latest report further noted that Lagos State had recorded the highest cases with over 351 buildings caving in in the last 50 years.
The report showed that the 351 collapsed buildings in Lagos represented 55.28 per cent of the total of 635 recorded cases across the country during this period.
Facility management crucial – Expert
Reacting to the development, a real estate expert, Musa Ibrahim, noted that facility management can help prevent recurring building collapse in Nigeria, stressing that the common factors leading to building collapse include the use of unqualified professionals, poor construction practices and use of substandard materials.
He noted that regular checks and facility management could help in detecting proper leakages or cracks in buildings that lead to collapse.
“Facility management is solely for the maintenance of the built environment, which when handled by qualified professionals applying global best practices, ensures that there is no overloading, unsupported activities don’t take place and proper maintenance with regular audits including structural, electrical and ambience integrity tests are conducted through commissioning activities,” he explained.