Sites and services housing development: Strategies for improving the effective demand for projects by low-income families in the urban areas of Nigeria

The goal of this thesis is to develop strategies for improving the effective demand for Sites and Services housing projects by low-income families in the urban areas of Nigeria. The specific objectives are (i) to develop a Model for identifying low-income housing components that can be eliminated or downgraded to save on project costs (in order to make the projects affordable to the target population) without seriously reducing its attractiveness to the beneficiaries and (ii) to consider and remedy defects in the organisation and delivery of projects. To achieve the above objectives, Pilot Projects under the World Bank assisted Nigerian States Urban Development Programme in Bauchi and Imo States were evaluated. The issues emerging from the exercise as well as an assessment of the effective demand (consumer preferences) for the housing components by the low-income families in seven housing areas in Minna in Niger State (a State created at the same time as Bauchi and Imo in 1976) provided the basis for further analysis of the Bauchi and Imo Projects. This was in order to establish the incidence and extent of the issues (both internal and external) that affected the attainment of the objectives of the projects. The above analysis, the international experience of Sites and Services Projects, and the implementation characteristics of good and bad practice in projects provided a basis for determining the improved principles for Sites and Services Projects in Nigeria. This provided the context in which the Model was proposed. Two housing units, based on Appendices 9 and 11, were subsequently constructed in order to test the feasibility and viability of the Model. The houses received the endorsement of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria.