The Federal Government’s urban and regional development plan also targets slum upgrading, bringing hope to Nigerians living in what are described as urban slums.
The development agenda also includes the articulation of a national physical plan and the development of urban and housing indicators.
Africa, and indeed Nigeria, is experiencing rapid urbanization, and in contrast to developed societies where urbanization and urban population growth translate into economic assets, in Africa such development has become more of a liability.
UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency responsible for human settlements, notes that most of Africa’s cities are unplanned and estimates that 60 percent of Africa’s urban dwellers live in slums.
Lagos, Nigeria’s largest commercial city, has nine identified slums, including Badia, Amukoko, Ajegunle and Okokomaiko, with more than 70% of the city’s 18 million people living in these slums.
Abuja, the federal capital, is also home to a number of growing slums, including Kuje, Kubwa and Nyanya.
Against this backdrop, the Government’s development agenda also includes the development of a comprehensive roadmap for housing and urban development and an infrastructure master plan with strong housing, urban and regional development elements.
The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Akon Eyakeni, who gave the hint at a forum held in Abuja recently, said the government expects the initiative to provide a major boost to ongoing efforts to make cities safer, more productive, inclusive, gender-responsive and green.
“This concerns the provision of critical infrastructure facilities and services such as drinking water, roads, drainage and electricity in selected slum areas where a comprehensive needs assessment study was conducted,” she said, noting, however, that the drainage, roads, water and electricity were provided as a pilot scheme to improve the well-being and living conditions of slum dwellers in Port Harcourt in Kano and Rivers States.
“With the positive socio-economic impact of these projects, it is hoped that the state governments will also undertake similar initiatives.Additionally, a comprehensive program of slum upgrading in six geo-political zones of the country is being implemented in Lagos, Onitsha, Aba, Osogbo and others,” she said.
The Minister informed that the government’s efforts to provide affordable housing to all citizens led to the launch of a cooperative housing loan scheme for Nigerians in the informal economy sector who have hitherto been denied the opportunity to access housing finance through the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme.
He enthused that the initiative had recorded considerable success, explaining that the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), which administers the NHF scheme, had collected N133.7 million in contributions to the national scheme between December 2011, when the cooperative scheme was launched, and March 2014, from 935 registered cooperatives comprising 18,397 members in the informal sector of the Nigerian economy.
