Land issues in the new national housing policy for Nigeria - Lessons from research experience

The task of institutionalising efficient, effective, affordable and sustainable housing delivery processes continues to challenge policy makers as the problems of the housing sector deepen in Nigeria. This paper examines the proposals on land delivery contained in the 2002 National Housing Policy, the most recent, against the backdrop of the realities and practices found in recent DFID-funded research into informal land delivery processes and access to land for the pact in Enugu, a typical Nigerian city. It finds hot while most proposals in the new policy addressed the problems on the ground, the government will need to develop more capacity to give force to its policy commitments. While pointing out likely negative outcomes, recommendations are made far ways to avoid pitfalls.