Securing urban land for housing among low-income earners in Sub-Saharan Africa: Case study of workers’ co-operative society, Enugu, Nigeria

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Issue: Volume 5, Issue 1, 2011

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Co-operative societies across the world have age-old tradition of assisting members gain easy access to vital resources and services through collective efforts. This paper explores the strategies adopted by public sector workers’ co-operative society in securing urban land for housing development. This study is motivated by dearth of empirical studies on strategies used by low- and middle –income earners in overcoming myriad challenges militating against access to urban land and housing in Nigerian cities. We used a qualitative research method to carry out an empirical investigation through one-on-one interviews with purposively selected members of Land Acquisition Committee (LAC) of the NEPA District Co-operative Thrift and Saving Loan Association Enugu, Nigeria. Findings show that a mixture of customary, informal and formal practices involved in securing land from indigenous landowners was principally aimed at ensuring customary and statutory legitimacy as well as secured tenure. The paper concludes that co-operative approach has great potentials in addressing problems of multiple payments for land, “indigenous land owners’ factor” and high cost of urban land in Nigeria, and therefore, should be encouraged and promoted among disadvantaged urban residents in developing countries.

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About journal

Title: Human Geographies - Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography
ISSN online: 2067-2284
ISSN print: 1843-6587
Imprint: University of Bucharest
Frequency: Biannual (May&November)
First volume: 1/2007
Current volume: 18/2024
Language: English
Indexed in: SCOPUS, ERIH PLUS, EBSCO (SocINDEX), ProQuest (Social Science Journals, SciTech Journals, Natural Science Journals), Index Copernicus, National Technical Information Service (NTiS), Bodleian Libraries, ExLibris SFX, DOAJ, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library, Google Scholar, Ulrich
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EDITORS


Prof. dr. Liliana Dumitrache
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Daniela Dumbrăveanu
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Mariana Nae
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Gabriel Simion
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

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