Denied Reality, Retarded Perception or Inaction?

Pergamon

PII: S0264-2751(01)00034-8

Cities, Vol. 18, No. 6, pp. 419–423, 2001  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0264-2751/01 $ - see front matter

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Denied Reality, Retarded Perception or Inaction? Victor U. Onyebueke Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Nigeria

In Nigeria, the notion of the house or dwelling as a mono-functional (residential) unit is quite dominant and it forms the basis of housing policies as well as physical planning strategies. Yet, field evidence emerging from the cities presents a contrasting image of the house as a workplace. This reveals a gap between the official perception of the house and housing needs on one hand and what they are in reality. Against this background, the paper reviews the responses of government and its agencies to the incidence of home-based enterprises (HBEs) and its housing corollary with a view to gauging their reactions to this inescapable feedback. The paper discovers that HBEs and other urban informal enterprises are still neglected in official circles. Direct planning intervention by government agencies are seldom, haphazard, and very inconsistent because of the absence of well defined guidelines and strategies for dealing with this peculiar physico-economic phenomenon. The recommendations put forward here reiterate the need to tackle this reality with the right attitude and appropriate actions.  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: informal sector; urban development; spontaneous shelter; Africa

Introduction In elaborating the rapid informalization process taking place in African cities, UNCHS (1996) has somehow defined the agenda that will dominate development debates in the continent. The urban informal sector, hitherto neglected, has again come into prominence because of the prime role it plays in the urban economy and land use dynamics (Simone, 1997). Owing to the recent upsurge in these activities, many African cities have become beehives of fragmented enterprises, many of which are pitched in stiff competition for dwindling urban spaces and customer patronage. The Nigerian experience with the Email address: [email protected] (V.U. Onyebueke)

urban informal sector has been no less dramatic. Recently, the incidence of home-based enterprises (HBEs) is generating so much national attention (Aluko, 2000; NTA, 2001). These are small-to-medium scale businesses that locate in dwelling units and surrounding spaces. In Nigeria, the urban informal sector provides the bulk of the total internally-generated revenue for city governments. Moreover, it accounts for over 70% of the urban employment in the country (Abumere et al, 1996), and also plays a major role in urban land use dynamics. Yet in physical planning and housing development, the sector and its activities are mostly treated as incidental matters. This study is important at this time for several reasons. First, it focuses on a crucial matter in which government tends to overlook in policy and pro-

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grammes. Second, it serves to emphasize the symbiotic connection between housing and income generation as epitomized by the HBE and its corollary, spontaneous shelter (i.e., more or less permanent structures built incrementally by the low-income in slums and squatter settlements). This is especially significant at a time when Nigeria and other African countries are articulating policies and plans that will usher them into the 21st century. These issues are characterized by varied and conflicting opinions. Are HBEs and other manifestations mere side effects of our “socioeconomic deficient”1 urbanization or are they manifestations of socio-econ1 A term used by P. Onibokun to describe urbanization without concomitant socioeconomic development being experienced in Nigeria.

Viewpoint: V U Onyebueke

omically correct behaviour just “waiting to exhale”? Is their prevalence a reflection of a lax and ineffective development system — a call for stricter regulations and measures? Or to the contrary, are they an indictment of a control system that is out of tune with the socio-economic reality? The paper, therefore reviews the responses of government and its agencies to the growing incidence of HBEs and spontaneous shelter in Nigerian cities. It approaches the matter from an urban planning perspective, which limits the considerations to physical planning policies and programmes. The paper begins with an exploration of literature on housing-income dynamics, the bulk of which are based on Asian and Latin American studies. Next, it extends the discourse further by drawing inferences from an Enugu (Nigeria) study in order to validate this linkage in Nigeria. The paper then assesses the actions (or inaction) of government based on this reality. Finally, it concludes by offering recommendations for future housing and urban planning considerations.

The house as a workplace The new paradigm built around the symbiotic connection between housing and income generation gives credence to the idea that the low-income house is essentially a workplace (UNCHS/ILO, 1995). This thesis is based on feedback from the numerous studies on slums and squatter settlements, including lowincome housing estates. Central to this communion of viewpoints, is the fact that many low-income urban dwellers do not use their dwelling units solely for residential purpose but for other purposes of commercial nature. The frequently quoted statement of Lacquian (1983) defines the basic rubrics of this school of thought: A house is a production place, entertainment centre, financial institution and also a retreat. A low-income community is the same, only more so. Both the home and the community derive vitality from the multiplicity of uses. The imposition of artificial restrictions on both would hinder their development.

Apart from the socio-cultural reasons

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adduced for diversity in dwelling and space usage (Narumi, 1984), it is the fragile economics of this group that induces them to incorporate income generating ventures into their home or premises (Dasgupta, 1987; Tipple, 1993). Conversely, the employment opportunities offered by informal enterprises facilitate the self-help housing efforts of the urban low-income and the poor. These householderentrepreneurs normally circumvent or even flout land use and development control restrictions in order to this. In the process, they erect separate business structures or alter their dwelling units and environs. Home-based enterprises (HBEs) have become an indispensable source of additional income for many urban households, a factor that makes them ubiquitous in residential areas where they provide cheap goods and services (Strassman, 1986). Raj and Mitra (1990) have estimated that HBEs can contribute as much as 56% to the total household income. The financial benefits accrued strengthens the capacity of a lowincome household to pay rent, repay mortgages, and improve its dwelling, immediate environs and community (Raj and Mitra, 1990; UNCHS/ILO, 1995). Another advantage which makes HBEs so endearing to most low-income people is their capacity to function as some kind of nodes. Informal social networks and bonds are easily developed around activities like credit sales, loan exchanges and interpersonal contacts (Pieter Van Dijk, 1995; Onyebueke, 1997). However, there is also a flip side to this whole argument. Despite the socioeconomic significance of urban informal businesses and housing, they retain a lot of negative externalities. They contribute, among other things, to poor housing conditions, environmental degradation, health hazards and decrease in residential quality (UNCHS/ILO, 1995; Okeke, 2000). According to Okeke (2000), The extensive use of temporary structures, which the sector sustains, exhibits very high nuisance value in land use development. As it were, these so-called temporary structures provide permanent accommodations for the informal sector…. Thus they become forerunners of squatter

settlement, especially in high density neighbourhoods….

The connection between informal sector activities and urban/neighbourhood degradation is not new. But new paradigms are offering a fresh look at the phenomenon which leads us to ask whether or not observed problems are intrinsic to urban informal activities or whether they arise wholly or partly due to the failure to plan.

The unfolding reality: the image of the Nigerian house/neighbourhood Nigerian cities have a typical retail structure, which is characterized by four hierarchies ranging, in descending order, from the Central retail area (our own equivalent of the CBD), the Subsidiary markets, the Roadside shopping belts, and the Neighbourhood stores (Okoye, 1985). HBEs are therefore not a new development in the country. Rather what we are experiencing today is actually a burgeoning of the neighbourhood stores due primarily to increase in new business entrants. Many low-income households who cannot locate their enterprises elsewhere because of lack of access and adequate capital, end up at the neighbourhood level. Consequently, the number of HBEs in the neighbourhood has increased considerably and so did their physical impact. In order to demonstrate this clearly, we refer to a study carried out in Enugu (Nigeria). In this case, only the highlights are presented because the study serves only as supportive evidence, having been presented elsewhere in full detail (see Onyebueke, 2000). Approximately one in every two houses (or 47% of the housing stock) in most residential districts in Enugu has an HBE. The intensity of occurrence varies from one house to the other and also widely between neighbourhoods. The activities in question include provision stores, beer parlours, eating places, laundries, barber shops and hair dressing salons, tailoring outfits, carpenters’ sheds, and repair works of all sorts. Table 1 shows the distribution pattern and the proportion of the affected housing stock. The proportion of housing units with HBEs ranges from 5% in the low density, high income area of Independence

Viewpoint: V U Onyebueke Table 1 The incidence of home-based enterprises (HBEs) and the proportion of housing units affected by neighbourhood in Enugu 1. Neighbourhood

2. Population density (pers/ha) variable

Achara GRA Independence Maryland Newhaven Ogbete Ogui Ogui New Riverside Secretariat Trans-Ekulu Uwani Total

325 20 10 176 298 710 965 883 59 89 63 1055 308

3. Average income (in N1000 at 1993 rate)

4. No. of housing units

4.9 8.7 10.0 4.3 5.4 1.3 1.6 3.6 3.5 2.2 6.1 4.4 4.6

466 163 170 212 240 269 201 205 312 63 407 476 3184

5. Housing units/premises with HBEs No. 261 28 8 77 107 165 149 138 27 22 66 436 1484

Source: Field Survey, 1995

to 92% in Uwani where population density is high and average income is below the city mean of N4600. It is obvious from columns 2, 3 and 5 of Table 1 that high density, low-income neighbourhoods show more predispositions to harbour HBEs than others with higher income and low density. A regression analysis of this data set also confirmed this initial proposition. The incidence of HBEs (as measured by the proportion of housing units with some form of enterprises) significantly related to population density and household income. The statistical proofs is as follows: coefficent of multiple (R2) was 0.85 the F-value was 34.91 at 0.01 level of significance. From the correlation matrix in Table 2, we can also verify that whereas income has a negative or inverse relationship with the dependent variable incidence of HBEs density has a positive or direct relationship with it. In other words, the incidence of HBEs in neighbourhoods increases with decreasing income (loading, ⫺0.58) and higher density (loading 0.93). Taken together, the results indicate that the HBEs are predominant in neighbourhoods, which are located near

the urban core2. We can then affirm that the low-income adjustment to income and housing problems is also the same in Nigerian cities. Judging from both economic and social viewpoints, the adjustments can be considered rational behaviours despite their seemingly ugly externals. Based on the above, what can be said about policies, programmes, and regulations that neglect or inhibit activities that border on the mainstay of so large a group?

Facing the housing-income reality in Nigeria: official perception and responses There is nothing explicit in either the National Housing Policy (NHP, 1990) or the Urban and Regional Planning Law (URPL) to suggest that the observed duality of dwelling and space usage is officially acknowledged or accepted in Nigeria. However, it would not be hard to observe that the

2

The so-called “Urban Jungle” which is about the longest stretch of urban slums in Enugu, is located in this core.

Table 2 Correlaton matrix of incidence OF HBEs (dependent var.) income and density (independent var.) HBEs HBEs INC. DEN.

INC 1.000 ⫺0.584 0.931

DEN ⫺0.584 1.000 ⫺0.549

0.931 ⫺0.549 1.000

underlining ideal in these physical policy documents is the concept of the house as a mono-functional (residential) unit, in space allocation and use. As covert as this conceptual bias may appear, it has over the years influenced government actions, and has also permeated contemporary thought and design. With this orientation, government agencies, professionals and other stakeholders normally find it difficult to assess or/and accept feedback that contradicts their mandate or mindset. This crisis situation elicits all sorts of responses, from delusion to complacency. Lack of inventiveness and ignorance are other problems which are linked to poor housing development and urban management in Nigeria (Onibokun, 1990; Abiodun, 1997). The narrow and restrictive perception of the house and housing needs also constitutes a major problem in housing delivery in Nigeria (Onibokun, 1990). This policy myopia is demonstrated in the ill-fated Shagari low-cost housing scheme during the third National Development Plan period (1980–1985). In at least 6 out of the 19 states, the housing units were largely abandoned because of unsuitable location relative to existing employment and economic nodes (Abiodun, 1985; Mba, 1992). In spite of the failure of past housing programmes, the government of the day has continued a similar programme of mass housing delivery (see Simire and Atere, 2000), which by its nature and execution excludes the low-income. Site and ser-

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vices schemes, settlements upgrading and other strategies which favour the low-income are not given sufficient attention. The Maroko slum clearance in Lagos stands as a test case of the official disregard of the close association between the economic survival and general welfare of the low-income and their dwelling (Jiboye and Ogunshakin, 1997; Uji, 1997). Furthermore, Agbola (1994) has pointed out the apparent abdication of this particular role by government and how some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are blazing the trail in slum upgrading in the country. Nigeria does not yet have a unified urban management system and as such, there are no clear guidelines and strategies for dealing with a number of pressing urban issues and problems. This creates a lot of problems for both the city council officials and entrepreneurs alike. Most times, the development control officers are not sure of their next line of action since many of the prevailing control regulations are either inappropriate or inapplicable in practice. Operating without formal recognition or registration leaves the informal entrepreneur to the whims of city officials, who are frequently accused of maltreating, harassing and extorting money from informal workers. The weak capital base of many of the enterprises also makes the taxes and rates imposed by city councils unbearable, forcing some of them into bankruptcy, or to start operating under cover. The responses of government and its agencies to the activities of the urban informal enterprises are, to say the least, very ambiguous. Direct intervention is seldom, haphazard and inconsistent. It tends to vary between two strategic poles: the one of benign neglect which is considered socioeconomically expedient; and the other of active repression, in pursuit of good city image.

Conclusion and recommendation The urban informal sector and its activities in the urban space have not been given adequate attention in Nigeria. This is rather paradoxical considering the fact of its contribution to

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the urban economy and low-income housing supply. The need for planning intervention in this area is keener than ever before not just because of the sector’s significance but also because of its overwhelming impact on the urban fabrics. With the continuing low economic performance coupled with the current high rates of rural – urban migration, unemployment, housing shortage and urban poverty, many more Nigerians will have to make a living in the informal sector. And unless proper precautions are taken, the tide of unsightliness, disorderliness and environmental deterioration being witnessed in the cities will increase. There is every indication that fundamental change in values and approach is required for the housing delivery system to be more demand-focused and need-sensitive. Policy makers, urban planners and architects need to take the feedback from low-income settlements very seriously. From the design of a single housing unit to an entire estate, it is imperative to make adequate provision for business opportunities. This is obviously because the dichotomy that is often assumed or imposed, between residential and commercial functions, is unrealistic and in many cases counterproductive. Urban planners and architects must then seek new and innovative ways of integrating or re-integrating these two complementary functions. Appropriate design solutions and restricted control have the potential for improving the image of the Nigerian house, neighbourhood, and city, battered by unsightly intrusion of structures and activities. The role of government in this regard cannot be overemphasized. Government, under its broad programme of poverty alleviation should give the necessary policy support and direction. It can work in conjunction with NGOs, citizen groups or informal sector groups to create the enabling conditions that will inspire growth and improved productivity in the sector. One way to do this is help guarantee land, appropriate infrastructure, and security of tenure (Pieter Van Dijk, 1995; UNCHS/ILO, 1995). This is because lack of business space to the low-income is as debilitating as shortage of operating capital. The aspects of the development-control regulations,

which inhibit some of the activities, should be reviewed in order to make the envisaged changes possible. In line with this review, government should also give equal attention to activities “promoting the regularization and upgrading of informal settlements and urban slums as expedient measure and pragmatic solution to the urban shelter deficit” (UNCHS, 1990). The upsurge of informal sector enterprises in the city poses a tremendous urban challenge. Benign neglect can no longer suffice as a policy refuge for government’s poor assessment of the urban situation, as well as its indecision, and inaction. The current situation demands urgent attention. Responsible governments should take action — the informed action — before they loose control of the city altogether.

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