Nigerian cities are experiencing increasing population and rising urbanisation rates
which are inconsistent with the provision of adequate housing and urban
infrastructure. This contradictory trend arises mostly from the failures of past efforts
by the government and the private sector. In recent times, public-private partnerships
have evolved at different urban centres to produce houses which are inaccessible to
the low-income households. Consequently, a substantial population of the lowincome
households residing in the urban areas are accessing their housing through
informal arrangements which are synonymous to the sprawling of substandard
housing. This problem is evidenced by the deficiency of infrastructure, shortage of
good housing, unplanned urban expansion, poor living condition, high residential
rentals and deprivation. To examine these issues, a review of government's mass
housing schemes is undertaken. Official policy papers, reports and academic literature
covering the period from 1960 to 2010 were used to explicate the mass housing
schemes. The findings indicates a consistent use of top-down approach to design and
implement mass housing programmes, from the Federal to State and Local
government levels. This approach failed to achieve desired results due to non
engagement of relevant stakeholders(governmental actors, private institutions, land
owners and end-users) in the funding, design and implementation of housing projects.
Similarly, roles were over-centralised in Federal Government line agencies which
gave undue advantage to few individuals to monopolise the implementation
processes. Furthermore, there was a lack of appropriate procurement regulations to
address probity, accountability and efficiency concerns. In view of these findings, a
bottom-up approach, the decentralisation of roles and partnership of multiple actors
are recommended. These have potentials for solving the problems identified;
therefore, further research could empirically verify this claim.