Housing the Urban Poor in Nigeria: User Involvement in the Production Process (Volume 1)

The book is the fruit of research works undertaken by Zanzan Akaka Uji on Informal Self-help Housing in Nigeria and by Moses M. Okonkwo on New Pattern of Urban Development for Nigerian Cities in a Post-SAP Period. The findings showed that where the urban poor took all (or most) decisions in the production and /or acquisition of shelter for themselves, they achieved greater success in this regard, and were clearly more satisfied with the results of their efforts (even if the performance of the housing in terms of quality was not entirely as desirable as they would have wished) than what governments had continually attempted to provide for the people without any form of user-involvement. The conclusion therefore was that to be able to effectively tackle the problem of shelter for the ever-increasing populations of the urban poor, the latter must be given substantial (if not total) control over the decision-making aspects of the housing production process