THE EFFECT OF INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT ON PROVISION OF HOUSING

THE EFFECT OF INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT ON PROVISION OF HOUSING

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Infrastructure refers to the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function (Frank, 2003). It typically characterizes technical structures such as housing, roads, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunications, and so forth, and can be defined as “the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions. However, all these coupled together can bring about the provision of good and affordable housing (Nubi, 2003).

Housing infrastructural provision refers to the bringing into existence of the basic amenities and services which must be in place for a particular activity or pursuit. However, no nation can boast of significant development or an enhanced economy without providing the basic infrastructures for the citizens’ well-being (Otegbulu & Adewunmi, 2008).

Provision of adequate infrastructural facilities is not taken for granted in developed countries; however, it remains a major challenge in developing countries, especially in Nigeria (Ajanlekoko, 2001). According to Yomi (2003), the problem of housing provision has become an everyday discussion in all quarters of the public and private services of the developing countries of Africa including Nigeria. It has become increasingly glaring that most of the urban population live in dehumanizing housing environment while those that have access to average housing do so at abnormal and outrageous cost. Different definitions have been ascribed by several authors to the word infrastructure. Infrastructural development is the provision of basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society like industries, buildings, roads, bridges, health services, governance and so on (Amis & Kumar, 2000). It is the development of enterprise or the products, services and facilities necessary for an economy to function (Sulivan and Sheffrin, 2003).

THE EFFECT OF INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT ON PROVISION OF HOUSING