Nigeria’s Land Use Act, promulgated in 1978, is perhaps the most controversial legislation in the country. The Act, originally promulgated as a decree and annexed to the country’s constitution, was ostensibly made to nationalize landholding in the country. However, the peculiar impact of the Act on the inhabitants of the Niger Delta region that hosts upstream activities of the oil industry has led to assertions that the Act was made specifically to deprive those inhabitants of the right to participate actively in the oil industry. This article examines the impact of the Act on the right of inhabitants to access justice. It argues that the Act obstructs their rights to environmental justice and is a fundamental cause of the violent conflicts that pervade the region.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1532987_code1225353.pdf?abstractid=1532987&mirid=3

Nigeria’s Land Use Act: An Anti-Thesis to Environmental Justice

Every society in the world harbours wage inequality and to understand why there is a pay differential it is necessary to understand the problems associated with inequality. Inequality is the mother of poverty and is pervasive in the type of job or profession that is performed by the people of that society. This article brings to the fore some of the associated problems that would emanate in the shorter and longer run in the country with the current covenanted minimum wage payment in Nigeria. Problems such as demand pull and cost push inflation resulting in unemployment were identified. This might exacerbate the problem of poverty and inequality that is already Nigeria’s core problem. Minimum wage in Nigeria context is sectarian and not a universal payment. The government mandate is to the public employees and does not cover the informal workers that make up about 70% of the entire work force. It is also envisaged that the free for all demand increase in wages by all sectors of workers that might result from the minimum wage payment could spark off rises in prices of commodities and other items all over the country given the fact that the Nigeria’s government’s past poor history in macro-economic stability would struggle to deal with the backdrops of inflation and deflation which minimum wage would result. It was vividly posited that Nigeria is amongst the poorest nations of the world as the indices of Nigeria’s poverty and development profile indicate. This article is free from complicated economic diagrammatical and equation usage jargon; it’s more interpretive than illustrational in nature, therefore making the layman able to comprehend it without much of a problem. It is hoped that this article will serve as a general informative to the general public and the policy makers and by writing this article the Nigeria’s policy makers would be in position to equip them-selves better ready to deal with any possible macroeconomic problems ahead. The implementation of the minimum wage rather than being a blessing to Nigeria could actually end up haunting the populace of the country.

The Effects of Nigeria Minimum Wage on Nigeria’s Economy

Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu Tampere University of Applied Sciences Degree Programme in Environmental Engineering AUTHOR: Lukmon Abiodun Balogun Shipping Container as an Alternative Housing Solution: Case Study Lagos, Nigeria. Bachelor's thesis 62 pages, appendices 18 pages. May 2018 The ever-growing population of Lagos state, Nigeria has brought a challenge in housing which has resulted in a housing deficit of 5 million people in Lagos and 17 million on a national scale. An alternative solution of using habitable shipping container homes to support the construction capacity of conventional construction method that lacks the capacity to the deliver the annual required number of houses, is readily available but not common to many Lagos residents as they are familiar with temporary shipping container structures such as kiosk, site offices and emergency shelters. This study was set out to understand the perspective, concerns and requirements in using shipping containers as an alternative solution in providing affordable and decent housing from a societal point of view of low and middle-income earners majorly affected by prominent housing deficit within Lagos and also the viability of the alternative solution for tropical region like Lagos in terms of cost, quality, and affordability when compared to conventional building methods. The result shows that the choice of Lagos resident in accepting shipping container homes as alternative is not dependent on their educational background, age, or income, rather it is more societal status issue where people will accept what is commonly used by the society at large. Recommendations where made on how best to deliver this shipping container alternative home to Lagos residents and how Lagos state government can also support in the implementation.

Shipping Container as an Alternative Housing Solution : Case Study Lagos, Nigeria

Homeownership, according to Tiwari and Moriizumi (2001), is the most desired form of housing tenure around the world for reasons of security and certainty. Despite this, owning a house presents a struggle for families virtually everywhere because many families can not purchase a house with equity yet there is phenomenal increase in the population, number and size of cities all over the world. The Nigerian government on her part had adopted many measures to achieve near self-sufficiency in residential housing production over the years but did not achieve much. This study examined the extent to which mortgage financing institutions in developed and developing countries have been able to meet the housing needs of savings’ contributors. The study noted that Harker and Zenios (2000) in their study realised that the financial services sector employs more people than manufacturing, automobiles, computers, pharmaceuticals and steel combined in more advanced countries. The financial services sector is also expected to encourage savings and allocate credit across space and time thereby allowing households to cope with economic uncertainties by hedging, pooling, sharing and pricing risks. Abiodun (1999) observed that a similar scheme has been used successfully to transform the housing sector in Korea. This study found out that economic stability in any nation is the panacea that would guaranty availability of long term loans since it is difficult for a mortgage finance company to operate in an unstable and volatile economic environment. Introduction Real estate and its finance are essential elements of economic development, economic growth and capital formation. The availability of adequate housing finance to would be purchasers, would definitely reduce the developers’ financial pressures which would have been imposed by unsold stock of housing and, at the same time, help channel profits into new housing projects. However, housing finance in many developing countries has been limited to state-owned specialized housing banks, which in many instances is a sector that is primitive and under-developed. These banks thereby constituted a burden on government budgets through heavy reliance on subsidized finance and accumulation of contingent liabilities. They also suffered chronic mismatch between assets and liabilities’ markets were distorted by the operations of these banks which provide subsidized loans in a way that Comparative Analysis of Developing and Developed Countries on Mortgage Finance: Oloyede Volume 3 No 1, 2007 Page 133 discouraged market-based institutions from providing housing finance services. Policies, such as interest ceilings and protection for households, adopted by many developing countries, were aimed at expanding the housing finance but they eventually had adverse effects. Lending was only restricted to few borrowers and consequently the real estate market remained under-developed and incapable of serving the needs and requirements of low and medium income households. According to Adesina and Urgikar (1980), there is no country in the world which is devoid of housing problems but these problems are more acute in the developing countries than in the advanced industrial nations. There is therefore the need to examine the situation in these developing and advanced countries across the world for comparison. Some Finance Systems across the World Several authors have examined the nature and success of mortgage finance systems in countries across the World. These finance systems differ from each other in source of funds, mortgage products and in the role of government (Stephen, 2000; Tiwari and Moriizumi, 2001 and Lea, 2001). Housing finance systems in Germany and Denmark, as reported by the above authors, are characterised by specialised mortgage banks with mortgage bonds backed by collateral pool as the principal source of funding. U.K. has a depository type of housing finance system with commercial banks and savings banks as mortgage lenders while the government insures deposits. The housing system in U.S.A. is linked to the secondary mortgage market. Banks and mortgage companies are principal lenders and mortgages are sold to investors in secondary markets as mortgage backed securities constituting the major source of funding. In Japan, housing finance system is based on direct credit system with government playing a major role with fixed or adjustable rate of interest. Saunders and Walter (1994) studied finance systems in Switzerland and found that banks are permitted to have broad powers and also that in the two countries there was little banking instability. In contrast, Benston and Kaufman (1995) noted that Spain experienced serious banking problems because financial institutions were over protected from competition. They observed however, that such instability may have come from the cost of monopoly profits and inefficiency of the financial system. Political manipulations also came from politicians and government officials who defined what they considered as safe assets that banks may hold for political, social or prudential reasons. The studies also showed that government encouraged, subsidized or mandated financing institutions to allocate credit to targeted groups/sectors or to provide services below market prices to targeted groups. Narrow banking proposals are designed to minimize the sources of the perceived fragility of financing institutions. Financial institutions are restricted to only high credit quality debt of short duration to eliminate potential losses associated with credit and interest rate risk. Suzuki (1995) studied finance systems in Japan, and discovered that home finances fall under three categories, namely loans for individuals, developers and urban renewal projects Individuals took up to 88% of the available funds. The finance of home purchases was provided by Commercial Banks, Finance Companies, Government Housing Loan Corporation, Pension Welfare Services, Public Corporation and Local Government bodies and funding was from public and private institutions. Their paper pointed out that in Japan, both public and private institutions grant mortgage loans to individuals, construction Journal of Land Use and Development Studies

Comparative Analysis of Developed and Developing Countries on Mortgage Finance: Lessons for Nigeria


 3D printing technology is currently one of the fast-emerging technologies in the infrastructure construction field. Ancient Sub-Saharan African building construction made extensive use of a wide range of earthen materials and vernacular structures. The main goal of the research discussed in this paper is to learn from historical building construction in Africa and adapt the methodology, material use, and geometry or form to 3D print sustainable and green residential houses in tropical and arid regions. The study addresses the current 3D printing technology for construction of houses using Sub-Saharan African historical sustainable and green materials such as cob, bamboo, and hemp-material based structures. Earthen materials are cost-effective, naturally insulated, and environmentally friendly, which makes them stand out from other sustainable construction materials. Two main geometry models are designed in this study for a 3D printing construction method based on the Sub-Saharan African historical housing forms. Moreover, the study contributes to achieving a green building that satisfies the UN sustainable development goals.

Learning from historical building construction in sub-saharan africa to adapt for green 3d printing of houses

Over the years, increase in population, rural-urban migration and financial incapability of governments have been responsible for huge housing deficits in African cities. As at 2013, the housing deficit in Nigeria was seventeen million units. Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria has a fair share of the deficit going by the number of dwellers which had exceeded twenty million in 2014. Presently many private housing development firms are springing up in Lagos to fill this gap by providing serviced houses and plots in form of estates to the public for sale with various payment plans. The focus of this research is to investigate and propose how the Lagos State Government can institute a synergy with willing private developers to compliment her efforts to alleviate present and future low and medium income housing deficits. Data related to the cost of buildings and serviced plots offered by some private firms including payment plans were collected and literature was reviewed on housing provision. A close ended questionnaire on how the property developers can improve delivery was also administered. The data were subjected to analysis using statistical tools. The data on payment plans did not yield any significance to the number of units achieved by the property developers. The opinion survey gave some trends on the views of the developers towards improving affordable housing delivery. The paper concludes that the government and the private firms can work on the data collected to arrive at a harmonized model through increased funding of existing channels to address the housing deficit in Lagos. The interests of the developers, the public and the government are ultimately protected in the model.

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Roseline Abidemi Kosoko

Papers

Improving Affordable Housing Delivery Through Private Developers in Lagos State