CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

  Background of the Study

Housing is an integral element of a nation‟s economy and its backward and forward linkages with other parts of the economy closely bond people‟s needs, demands and social processes. These linkages allow housing to act as an important engine for sustainable development and poverty reduction in both society and the economy, and without a functioning housing sector, urban centers cannot be established or developed. A functioning housing sector offers appropriate, affordable housing and sustainable patterns of urbanization which are critical for the future of our ever-urbanizing planet (Arias, 1993).

Public housing delivery for civil servants in Niger State started after the creation of the State in 1976 when some government quarters were constructed under the supervision of Niger State Ministry of Works, Transport and Housing. Later, Niger State Housing Corporation was created in 1979 for housing delivery in the state. However, between 1976 and 2007 less than 5,000 houses were developed by the public sector. Niger State Evolving Strategy for Sustainable Housing (NSESSH, 2007).

In order to improve on this, the government of Niger State in 2007 embraced the Public Private Partnership (PPP) as an alternative strategy for her housing delivery. This was a position response to the 2^nd United Nation (UN) Conference on Human settlement (HABITAT II) in Istanbul, in June, 1996 which advocated the effective and affordable mass housing delivery through Public-Private Partnership (NSESSH, 2007).

Public- Private Partnership (PPP) involves a contract between a public sector authority and a private party, in which the private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project. PPP is the partnership of two or more actors at least one of which is public and another from the private business sector. The Niger State administration since 2007 commenced Public- Private Partnership implementation of her housing scheme to the state civil servants with much emphasis on affordability. Niger State Gateway to Land and Housing (NSG&LH, 2007).

According to Aribigbola (2006) housing affordability has been widely recognized as an essential issue in creating sustainable built environment especially in the context of developing world cities. Mbamali and Obiekwe (2001) described affordable housing for a particular income group as the range of houses for which the total monthly repayment costs fall within the monthly repayment capability of the average household in that income group. For AHURI (2004) the rational for housing assistance is to improve housing affordability for those receiving the assistance. Kolawole et al (1998) stressed that, for housing to be affordable for certain level of households, there should be provision for subsidy.

In Nigeria, the national housing policy does not want any Nigerian to spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing expenditure (Aribigbola, 2006).In addition, the 1992 National Housing Strategy defined affordable housing as any housing costing less than 30% of income, though some level of workers have over 30% of their salary being deducted for the repayment of the houses allocated to them. This study sets out to ascertain if the civil servants‟ allotees of the Niger State housing scheme have capacity to afford the repayment schedule.