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Public land ownership and urban land management effectiveness in Metropolitan Kano, Nigeria
HABITATITVL.. Vol. 21, No 3. pp. 305--317, 1997 © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Greal Britain 0197-3975/97 $17.00 + 0.00
Pergamon
PII:S0197-3975(97)00008-8
Public Land Ownership and Urban Land Management Effectiveness in Metropolitan Kano, Nigeria SHAIBU BALA GARBA
Department of Architecture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
Rapid urban population expansion in the developing world has created the need for effective land management in urban areas. Effective urban land management is important because of its implication in social and economic development. Public intervention and control of land markets is generally viewed as one of the best means of ensuring the effective management of land. In Nigeria, land was nationalized in 1978 as a means of improving equity in access to it and its management. Studies of the Kano metropolitan area, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, indicate that urban land m a n a g e m e n t is characterized by a lack of effectiveness. This paper reviews the factors contributing to the current ineffectiveness in land management in the metropolitan area. In general, the paper notes the need to link recommendations of public ownership of land with requirements necessary for effective management and to contextual issues in the locality where the policy is to be implemented. The paper concludes by recommending that the Kano state government should consider re-evaluating the existing land use control regulations and procedures in the city with a view to introducing a more appropriate and sustainable control system. The paper also recommends that Nigeria should consider liberalizing its land markets as a means of improving land management effectiveness. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: land; planning; urban management; Nigeria INTRODUCTION The p h e n o m e n o n of rapid urban population expansion taking place in the developing world is an issue that has been well discussed in the research literature. One of the consequences of the rapid urban population expansion is the need for effective urban management. Effective urban management is necessary in order to improve social and economic conditions in urban areas. Urban land is one of the resources in need of effective management because of its importance in social and economic development. Policies relating to land produce a chain reaction which runs through the social and economic fabric of society. Effective land management is also necessary in order to ensure the orderly growth and development of urban areas and to Correspondence to." King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. Box 1219. Dhahran, 31261. Saudi Arabia.
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improve access to services and infrastructure. The inability to develop effective land management that ensures the adequate supply of affordable land to meet the needs of all income groups usually leads to prevalence of practices that hamper the ability to order and manage urban development. Public intervention and control of land markets is one of the means usually advocated for improving urban land management. Some level of public control is generally seen as desirable to ensure that land is used in the best interest of society. In some communities, public control takes the form of outright public ownership of land and its management. The 1976 United Nations Habitat Conference in Vancouver recommended public ownership of land as a means of controlling areas of rapid urban expansion. In Nigeria, land was nationalized in 1978 following the Vancouver conference as a means of improving equity in access to it and its management. In many Nigerian cities, however, existing conditions and practices appear to suggest a lack of effectiveness in land management. In the Kano Metropolitan Area, studies by Frishman (1988), Garba (1992) and others have found a growing ineffectiveness in the management of land in the city. The aim of this paper is to discuss the factors contributing to the lack of effectiveness in land management in the city. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section discusses theoretical and organizational issues in public land management intervention. The second section presents the effects of the existing land management situation on Kano. The third section presents the framework for land management in the city, and the last section reviews the causes of land management ineffectiveness in the metropolitan area.
P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T I N T E R V E N T I O N IN U R B A N L A N D M A R K E T S
Examinations of land issues are generally carried out within the framework of market theory. Discussions center on the failure of land markets resulting from the inherent characteristics of land. Among these characteristics are the fixed supply of available land, the undepreciable nature of land, the subjectivity of investment in land to laws of diminishing return, the potential for the use of land for investment rather production, the location-specific nature of land and the difficulty in quantifying land. The need for public intervention and control of land markets stems from the perception that unregulated land markets have a potential to produce failures, which may lead to socially undesirable consequences. Among the common failures associated with land markets are: problems in the provision of public goods; problems of externalities; speculation in land; and exclusionary land markets. Interventions are usually aimed at controlling the market failures, thereby ensuring efficiency and equity in the functioning of land markets and also achieving other urban development objectives. The level of intervention in land markets varies between countries depending on ideological orientation, but falls within a range that spreads from laissez-faire economies, where market allocation of land prevails with minimal, usually positive, intervention, to command economies, where land is completely owned by the public sector, with a central agency controlling the allocation of rights. Measures used in intervention are a combination of legal and fiscal measures, and direct public participation. Several factors have been hypothesized to affect the effectiveness of public land management interventions (Darin-Drabkin, 1977; McAuslan, 1985; Dunkerley, 1983; SCBR, 1983). One of these factors is the availability of appropriate and coordinated policy guidance. Countries have different social, economic, political and historical backgrounds. The effectiveness of land policy measures is determined by the appropriateness of the measures within the context of these backgrounds. The coordination of policy measures to minimize side effects is also an important factor in land management because of the variety of policy measures used and the sometimes conflicting objectives put forward for these policies. The
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interorganizational system for managing land also affects the effectiveness in its management. The definition of clear institutional responsibility, the level of interorganizational coordination between management institutions, the capacity of the institutions and the availability of information are all factors that affect land management effectiveness. The prevailing administrative system and political philosophy also affect land management. Conflicts between the different levels of governments, inefficiency and corruption in the administrative systems and lack of obligation to obey rules by the citizenry could all affect the level of effectiveness in land management.
EFFECT OF THE LAND SITUATION ON KANO
Kano metropolitan area is located in the northern part of Nigeria, It is among the country's four largest urban areas and it is also the largest urban area in the northern part of the country. The city is the capital of Kano State, one of Nigeria's 31 states. Figure 1 shows the location of the city. Estimates of the city's population are unreliable because of the dearth of statistical data in the country. In 1984, the population of the city was estimated at 1.653 million inhabitants. Current estimates put the population of the city at between 2.5 and 5 million. The public ownership of land in Nigeria gives the public sector absolute control over the land market. This should ideally make it easier for the government to achieve its urban development objectives. A review of the land and housing situation in Kano reveals a prevailing lack of effectiveness in land management. Manifestations of this lack of effectiveness are found in common practices in the city and in the city's pattern of growth and development. One of the prominent problems of the city is the growing shortage in the supply of ripe land for development despite the public ownership of land. Several studies (Odunlami, 1989; Frishman, 1988; Aboesh, 1982; KSUDB, 1980) have reported that Kano is facing a growing shortage in the supply of land for development. This shortage was projected to have started around the 1960s, when the population of the city began to increase rapidly, and restrictions were placed on the use and transfer of land with the creation of institutions to manage it (Frishmam 1988). The inefficiency in some current land management practices also contributes to exacerbating the land shortage and contributes to highlighting the ineffectiveness in
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land management. An example of such inefficiency is found in land subdivision, with land being subdivided into very large plots in certain areas of the city. Figure 2 shows the spatial development patterns of two areas of the city; Nassarawa and the Walled City. Nassarawa, despite being located in the city centre is characterized by large plot subdivisions and detached housing. This is in contrast to the compact structure which obtains in the traditional walled city. This inefficiency not only limits land supply but also reduces the impact of public investment in the provision of services. Another problem relates to distributional equity in the allocation of the limited land that is supplied to the city. The city has witnessed an increase in corruption in the land allocation process, with the land allocation system characterized by fraudulent practices. Land is allocated not on the basis of need but as a form of patronage. A member of the staff of the agency responsible for land allocation pointed out that land is "usually allocated not on the basis of want or need, but on the basis of who you know in the allocation agency, or what power you wield in the society". An inquiry into the land development and allocation process in 1980 found it rife with numerous irregularities, such as multiple assignment of the same plot, payment and bribes for land, confiscation of land without compensation, and allocation of land reserved for public uses (Frishman, 1988, p. 114). It is common, even as at December 1991, when the last case became public, to find a single individual with an allocation of up to 10 plots. The staff of the Division were even reported to have gone on 'strike', refusing to open files for land allocation or take allotees to their land, because they were ignored in the allocation process. A former governor of the state was reportedly jailed for corrupt land allocation practices (Home, 1986, p. 231). The development of a speculative market in land despite its illegality is also a major problem in the city. With a growing population and an inadequate supply of land, the limited land that is supplied for development is used speculatively by land owners, which pushes up the cost of land in the city. Prices for land of as much as 100,000 Naira I was being reported by 1988, compared to the fee of 500 Naira which had been paid for land allocated by the public sector in the same year. Thirtyfive percent of the respondents in a survey on the Hausawa layout indicated that they had obtained their plots through a middleman and not from allocations by the allocating authority (Odunlami, 1989, p. 51). A governor of the state was reported as declaring in 1977-78 that Kano had the most expensive land in Nigeria. ~9.8 Nigerian Naira was equivalent to US$1.00 in 1990.
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Systematically eliminated from access to formal land, because of the short supply, fraudulent practices in allocation and high prices due to speculation, most low income households have resorted to the use of informal means of land and housing provision. Reports indicate that informal developments account for up to two-thirds of all new developments in the city (Home, 1986, p. 234). The three common means of housing used by low-income groups: squatting, increase in density in existing built-up areas and illegal subdivision, are all used extensively in the city. Increase in density occurs as the open areas of the city are developed and as the level of occupation of the existing housing stock is increased (Frishman, 1988, p. 105; KSUDB, 1980, p. 10). Squatting was projected to have started about 30 years ago, almost at the same time that land and housing shortages became evident (Frishman, 1988, p. 105). Squatting has been on the increase and its existence has become widely known. At least 10'7,, of the urban population is estimated to be living in squatter settlements. Figure 3 shows the location and distribution of squatters in the city and the direction of squatter settlement expansion. The use of illegally subdivided plots is common on the periphery of the urban area. Farmers illegally subdivide farm land and sell it for development. The process is going on at such a fast rate that sometimes supply is much more than demand, creating vacancies on the illegally subdivided lots. Almost all the informal developments are characterized by peripheral locations, predominantly traditional forms of construction, lack of a planned pattern of development, poor physical relationship to service and infrastructure networks, and the lack of public facilities such as adequate road access and drainage.
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Fig 3. Extent of squatting in Kano
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The effects of the existing land and housing problems on the city are evident in its physical development pattern. The physical expansion of the city, though rapid, is largely unplanned and uncontrolled. There is a high level of inefficiency in the use of services and infrastructure because of the resultant urban patterns. Substantial portions of the city lack connections to services and infrastructures, and their u n p l a n n e d n a t u r e m e a n s that a t t e m p t s at e x t e n d i n g these services and infrastructure are going to be costly. The situation contributes in limiting the ability to properly plan the present growth of the urban area to ensure optimal social and economic development. Also, if the city continues its rapid expansion and the problems are not addressed, they will probably get more complicated making future remedial action more difficult to undertake.
STRUCTURE OF THE LAND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The framework for land management in Kano incorporates input policies from both the national level of government and the state level. The focus of national land management in Nigeria is on the public ownership and allocation of land, and the control and regulation of land use. The framework for management is established by two laws: the Land Use Decree of 1978, and the Town and Country Planning Law of 1946. The principal objective of the Land Use Decree is to ensure equity in access to land. The decree vests all the land within the territory of a state in the governor of the state, with powers to designate urban areas, to grant rights of occupancy with land grants to individuals limited to 0.5 ha in urban areas, to d e m a n d rent for land, and to compulsorily acquire land needed for public use. The decree prohibits all forms of transactions in land without the consent of the governors. The Town and Country Planning Law was enacted to ensure control in the development and use of land in planning areas and to improve the amenity value of cities. The principle of land use regulation in the law is based on the designation of a planning area, and the preparation and implementation of planning schemes. The law requires all developments to be in accordance with an approved scheme or an interim development order, enacted prior to the coming into force of an approved scheme. The law provides for the establishment of planning authorities for one or more planning areas, responsible for the preparation and implementation of the schemes. These authorities have powers to expropriate land, charge land owners betterment levies and pull down illegal structures. Two agencies, acting in concert with the governor of the state, are principally responsible for the management of land and the control and regulation of land use in the Kano metropolitan area. The Land and Survey Division, an arm of the governor's office, is responsible for implementing the provisions of the 1978 Land Use Decree. The K a n o State U r b a n Planning and Environmental Protection Agency is constituted as a planning authority for Kano State under the provisions of the Town and C o u n t r y P l a n n i n g Law. The L a n d and Survey Division is responsible for the assembly, development and supply of land to meet the needs of the city, and also for land allocation. Applications for land grants are made to the Division, specifying the intended use. This application is passed on to the Kano State Urban Planning and Development Board as an application for planning permission for a specific land location. The application is assessed on the basis of its conformity to plans and recommendations are made to the governor on the grant of right of occupancy. Land is allocated by the agency on a 99 year leasehold basis, with a 2 year limit for effective development when at least 30-40% of the value of the development must be completed. Land use planning and development control derived from the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Law are the two principal instruments used in the regulation and control of land use in the Kano metropolitan area. Two types of
Public Land Ownership and Urban Land Management E[~/ectiveness
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schemes, master plans and lay-out schemes, have evolved as major instruments of land use regulation (Odunlami, 1989, p. 43). The master plans often cover extensive areas, setting out the broad principles of land use and development, while the layouts are often drawn at neighbourhood levels within the context of the master plans. Planning and development control measures are in practice administered in sequence with the land development process. Three principal forms of control are used. The first is through the grant of planning permission during land allocation enabling the planning authority to administer the broad master plan and make changes where necessary. The second form of control is through the approval of development proposals. All private developers are required to submit their development proposals to the planning authority for approval. The planning authority checks the proposals to ensure conformity to standards relating to health, security and social welfare, specified in the city's building regulations. The last form of control is that of the control of building activities. Periodic inspections of developments are carried out during construction to ensure that they conform to approved plans. Where illegal developments are noticed in the city, the planning authority also undertakes the clearance of these structures. Between 1976 and 1987, clearance of illegal structures was carried out in at least six districts of the city. CAUSES OF LAND MANAGEMENT INEFFECTIVENESS Assessing the existing management structure, the factors contributing to the lack of effectiveness in public land management in Kano can be broadly divided into three categories: problems associated with the existing policy and m a n a g e m e n t frameworks, with the land management interorganizational system, and with the current land management practices.
Land policy and management framework A major requirement for effectiveness in the management of land is the availability of a defined and coordinated policy guidance. Policy guidance is usually of two kinds: 'input policies', which establish the system for management and 'output policies', which govern day-to-day action in the management of land issues. Output policies are usually contained in land policy statements or in comprehensive urban development policy statements. The policy statements identify short- term goals and objectives of land and settlement development and identify the strategies for achieving these goals. Such policy statements also guide land management institutions in the performance of their duties, and provide a means for evaluating their performance. In Kano, apart from the limited and vague objectives in the existing laws, there is a complete lack of defined output policy guidance with well-defined strategies to ensure the adequate supply of land and guide the development of the urban area. This is despite the public ownership of land. Strategies to ensure the implementation of master plans also stress negative controls to the exclusion of positive land development. This lack of defined policy guidance has left the land management institutions powerless to effectively perform the broad duties assigned to them, or to ensure the adequate supply of land. Another source of ineffectiveness in land management comes from the inappropriateness of the existing laws and regulations establishing the management system. Two major requirements for the successful public management and allocation of land are efficiency in the bureaucracy and the integrity of the management system (McAuslan, 1985, p. 38). In adopting the Land Use Decree, no attempt was made to address these issues, despite the fact that serious management problems were faced in the implementation of previous laws on which the decree was closely modelled. Issues of land ownership and allocation were also treated in the decree as
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ends in themselves rather than as means to the creation of ordered settlements. No attempt was made in the formulation of the Land Use Decree to comprehensively address the issues of planning, settlement development or urban management, despite the prevalence of a rapid rate of urbanization. Also, attention was not given to the specific problems of low-income households in the formulation of the law. The Town and Country Planning Law, enacted in 1946, has not been subject to any comprehensive review. The law, as McAuslan (1979), p. 44 observed, provides an "inadequate and out-of-date prescription of what a plan should consist of". The Planning Law stresses physical layouts only and fails to provide for a more comprehensive policy related to economic, social, and environmental factors. Also, it does not provide for the integration of more traditional aspects of planning such as transport, sewerage, water and public services, nor does it provide any coordinating framework for the interaction of institutions responsible for the provision of these services. The processes of planning and development control specified by the planning law are unclear, with no clear procedures for producing land use schemes, and no obligation for consultation with the residents of the planning area in the preparation of land use plans. In practice, the lack of a defined planning process leaves planners to undertake planning exercises in any way they can, and the master plans produced usually reflect the visions of the planners, rather than the actual needs of the urban residents. The planning system also lacks clear provisions to ensure continuity in the planning process, or once schemes are prepared and approved, to enable a review of the land use plans to reflect changes in the needs of the urban areas. This has led to a situation where plans proposed for the urban area show marked differences in both philosophies applied in planning and the urban structure proposed. Development control measures applicable in the city are also unclear and this has in practice resulted in the evolution of development control procedures that do not differentiate between types and scale of developments. The control process leads to long delays in the development approval process stretching the limited capacity of the planning agency. The specification of slum clearance as a measure of development control appears inappropriate considering the existing land and housing shortages in the urban area. The current building regulations in the city are another inappropriate instrument of land use control. Provisions of the regulation are vaguely phrased, leaving the planning authority with wide powers of not only enforcing the regulations, but also sometimes interpreting what is right or wrong within its context. This situation has created a tendency for excessive caution and over-control in the enforcement of the regulations, which contributes in restricting the rate of land development. Standards specified in the building regulation such as set-back and limits on plot utilization are also high and inappropriate within the context of the needs of the urban area. Land management interorganizational system
A properly designed organizational system, along with capable institutions, is a prime requirement in the bid to develop an effective land management intervention system. In Kano, several factors were found to limit the capability of the existing system. One of these factors is the over-centralization in decision making and management activities. There is an over-centralization in decision making with a basis in the laws giving absolute powers of control over land issues to the governor of the states. Land use planning, and land use regulation and control activities are also centralized in the state capital. From the capital in Kano, the two land management agencies, the Land and Survey Division and the Kano State Urban Planning and Environmental Protection Agency, oversee land assembly, servicing and allocation, and the regulation and control of land use in the 29 urban areas of the state, including the K a n o m e t r o p o l i t a n area. This m a n a g e m e n t structure does not
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encourage the agencies to acquire an adequate knowledge and understanding of the problems of the urban areas to support planning activities nor does it encourage the design of appropriate and informed policies and programmes in land management. It does not also provide the necessary flexibility for the adaptation of the existing instruments to the particular needs of the urban areas. This encourages the use of inappropriate and ineffective measures of control, which contributes to restricting the supply of land. The centralized powers and responsibilities makes abuse easy, especially since there are no appropriate institutional checks on the use of the powers.
Another problem of the organizational system stems from the limited capacity of the managing institutions. The existing land management institutions in Kano State are characterized by inadequate capacity. The planning authority, with a staff of 350, with less than 30 trained planners and architects, is expected to oversee land use regulation and control in 29 urban areas, including Kano. The agency has trailed behind rather than guided the development of settlements. The agency identifies its inadequate staffing and limited equipment, which has to be timeshared between its various operational units, as one of its most pressing problems (KSUDB, 1980, p. 37). The Land and Survey Division is also characterized by inadequate staffing and a lack of equipment. It has been unable to create and maintain proper records of the land ownership in the city nor has it been able to undertake a survey of the available land in the urban area. The division has also been unable to ensure the collection of land rent, due the government, or to put a check on the illegal sale of land in the urban area. This inadequate capacity serves as a disincentive to the institutions in the performance of their duties. It also contributes to their inability to police land ownership, enforce land use regulations, or plan and regulate the use of land in the urban area. Land owners are, as a result, encouraged to hold onto land and use it as they wish. Another major problem with the existing institutional structure is the conflicting mandate of the institutions. This conflict appears to have its root in the framework provided for land management by the existing laws. The Land Use Decree vests land in the governor and makes him the only authority to grant rights and interest in land. The Town and Country Planning Law, however, allows planning authorities to assemble, service and administer land in executing their duties of land use planning and development control. Because laws relating to land ownership were introduced earlier than planning laws, however, land use planning has traditionally evolved as a means of land allocation. Thus planning has always functioned in preparing layouts to guide the allocation of land by other agencies. This role of planning has produced some basic problems in the management of land. One of the problems concerns the ownership of layouts. The Land and Survey Division usually perceives layouts as its own; it therefore, "sees a major role for itself in controlling both the structure and the contents of the layouts" (Odunlami, 1989, p. 48). Because the Division is, however, an administrative unit that is closer to the political arm of government, it is more exposed to external subversive pressures. This often leads to intervention during the preparation of layouts, with pressure on the planning authority to alter layouts to accommodate the wishes of interest groups. Sometimes, the layouts are altered during allocation without the knowledge of the planning authority, thus leaving it to perform its land use control and regulation duties in a blind and confused state. Odunlami (1989, p. 48) reports an example of such a situation in the Sharada estate, where 46 additional plots were created on land reserved for recreation and open spaces by the Land and Survey Division during the allocation process. The Land and Survey Division is also responsible for specifying development covenants attached to land grants. The agency does not, however, see the enforcement of these regulations as part of its duties, and has never had a tradition of enforcing them. The planning authority, which is responsible for the enforcement of
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development regulations, does not see it fit to enforce these covenants because it did not specify them. This conflict in the enforcement of regulations leaves land owners free to hold onto their plots without fear of challenge even when the land is clearly being held for speculative purposes. A survey of one official layout showed that only 21.5% of the respondent private developers had completed the development of their plots within the 2 years specified in the certificate of occupancy. Only a further 26% had commenced development within the same period (Odunlami, 1989, p. 57). This lack of clear and defined mandates encourages speculation in land and the withholding of land from development. It also encourages the corruption in the land allocation process. The conflict in the mandates of the institutions is further complicated by the existence of relics of traditional economy. Emirs and ward heads, who formed the bedrock of the traditional and colonial land management system in the native settlements, are reported to still be allocating land under customary titles (Frishman, 1988, p. 115). The process is held to account recently for the provision of more than 1000 units of housing plots within the walled city. The actions of the emirs and ward heads, while supplying much needed land for development, contributes in undermining the ability to plan and control the growth of the urban area effectively. A principal requirement for the effective management of land is the availability of comprehensive information. In Kano, not only is a comprehensive information on land not available, but there i's also a complete lack of current and accurate information on the size of the city's population or on the social and e c o n o m i c characteristics of the population. There is also a complete lack of accurate information on such sectoral issues as housing, or transportation to aid in meaningful land use planning. The dearth of information serves to constrain the institutions in carrying out their duties limiting their ability to plan and control growth.
Land management practices The current practices and actions of both the state government and the institutions managing land appear to contribute immensely to the lack of effectiveness in land management in the city. The Kano state government, for example, appears to give a very low priority to land and settlement development issues. This low priority, which may also be held to account for the lack of comprehensive settlement policies, is evident from the level of resource allocation to the sector. Allocations to the sector in the yearly budget have been low, with no separate provision for it. Funds for land development are provided haphazardly under housing, and town and country planning programmes. In 1988, only 1.7 million Naira of the 17.1 million Naira budgeted for capital expenditure for housing and town and country planning was for housing and land development for the whole the state. This figure appears ridiculous when compared to the 2 million Naira budgeted for staff housing loans, and the 3 million Naira provision for compensation for land needed by the government. The funds provided are usually inadequate and cannot in most instances even provide the services required in the limited land that is developed (Home, 1986, p. 234; Odunlami, 1989, p. 54). This inadequate priority, which translates to poor funding, means that the sector is unable to intervene and ensure the supply of land at a scale that will meet the needs of the city. There is also a complete absence of an established programme aimed at supplying land to meet the needs of the city, despite the public ownership of land and the prohibition of private land transactions. The Land and Survey Division does not have any defined obligation to ensure that land is continuously and adequately supplied in the urban area. The Division undertakes land assembly and development activities only when the resources for it are made available by the government. This situation results in the inadequate supply of land and to the growing shortage of prime land for development in the urban area. The land shortage encourages
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speculation and the use of the informal process of housing by those who cannot get access to the limited land that is supplied for development. Sometimes, even the limited land development programmes undertaken by the division have been shown to contribute to worsening the land and housing situation of low income groups. It has been reported that that attempts to lay out new areas always result in the removal of poor people from land and the reallocation of the developed land to more influential people (Frishman, 1988, p. 54). One major problem limiting the availability of resources for land development in the existing system is the high level of subsidy in land allocation. It costs the Land and Survey Division 99,000 Naira/ha to develop land for residential purposes in 1988. The same land attracts only an annual rent of 2,500 Naira/ha for low-density development, with about 500 Naira charges on allocation to cover the cost of survey fees, the processing and preparation of certificate of occupancy and the registration of the land (LSD, 1988, pp. 10, 50-51). This high subsidy makes the replication of land development activities with the meager resources allocated difficult and makes any land development activity solely dependent on government allocation. The high level of subsidy in allocation encourages the inefficient subdivision of lots, the rampant corruption which now characterizes the allocation system, and also the use of land for speculation. Standards in practical day-to-day development control practices have also contributed to restricting land supply in the urban area. Settlement and shelter development standards, as earlier pointed out, are excessively high and inappropriate considering conditions in the city. Two aspects of the land management system where the high standards are evident are in land subdivision and in the control of development activities. The building regulations specify plot sizes of at least 180, 330 and 900 m 2 for high-, medium- and low-density developments, respectively. In practice, however, most of the residential areas have plots of between 350 and 450 m 2, with plots of up to 3600 m 2 found in the low-density areas of the city. These plot sizes are determined with little or no economic considerations. They are excessively large and unrealistic (Home, 1986, p. 232; Aboesh, 1982, p. 148). Lot sizes of 200, 260 to 270, and 375~,00 m 2 are pointed out by Home (1986, p. 232) to be adequate for high-, medium- and low-density residential developments including provisions for the traditional courtyard and reception areas ('Zaure'). The excessively large plot sizes encourage the sprawl of the urban area, restricts the amount of land that could be supplied for development if more appropriate standards are used, and makes the levy of realistic charges for land difficult. It is common among owners of such large plots to subdivide them into smaller plots. A survey in one of the official layouts showed that 20% of the plots in it had been subdivided (Home, 1986, p. 234). Apart from the high standards in land subdivision, there is also a high degree of inefficiency in the preparation of layouts and in land use in the existing developed areas of the city. Sufficient attention is not paid to infrastructure cost and land use efficiency in the preparation of layouts. Roads, which are the main infrastructure cost, take up as much as 50% of the land in layout schemes despite the low level of vehicular ownership. The layouts have been found to "perform poorly when measured against such cost effectiveness indicators as plot per kilometer of estate road, ratios of internal and external road junctions, and proportions of plots with access on more than one frontage" (Home, 1986, p. 233). The poor proportioning of layout plots increases the cost of service and infrastructure provision. They also make the levying of reasonable charges and cost recovery for land development difficult. Inefficiency in layout preparation increases the cost of the provision of public services and infrastructure, limits the level of utilization of the services, encourages sprawl and contributes to restricting the supply of land tbr development in the city. Another cause of inefficiency in land management is found in the application of the building regulations in the development control process. Standards relating to
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space provision, servicing, and building materials in shelter development are high in comparison to practices common in the urban area. It is expectations from the enforcement of the regulations that, however, discourages the use of the formal process of land development. A residential certificate of occupancy issued in 1983, for example, required development to a minimum value of 116,000 Naira. This is in comparison to the estimated 1000 Naira cost of a moderate but simple mud brick building in 1980 (Frishman, 1988, p. 115). The high expectations from the enforcement of the regulations encourages people to use the more affordable informal means of land development, thereby contributing to the u n p l a n n e d and uncontrolled growth of the urban area.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION This paper has examined the problems of urban land management in the Kano metropolitan area, Nigeria, highlighting the causes of a prevailing lack of effectiveness. The paper started by reviewing the issues that motivate public intervention in land management and the factors that determine the effectiveness of such interventions. Subsequently, the land and housing problems being faced in the city were highlighted, along with their effects on the city's pattern of development. Finally the land management framework in the city was described and the factors associated with the ineffectiveness in land management were discussed. The factors were divided into three categories; problems associated with the policy and management framework, problems associated with the land management interorganizational system, and problems associated with practices in the system. The interaction of these problems provide the explanation for the lack of effectiveness in land management in the city. From the study, it is evident that public ownership of land may not always be associated with the perceived benefits of more equitable access to it and more effective management of urban growth and development. From the situation in Kano, it appears that active public involvement may contribute in constraining the land market, producing the very market failures that provide the justification for public intervention and participation in management. In general, therefore, recommendations of public ownership and management of land should always be linked to requirements for effective management, and to conditions prevailing in the locality where the policy is to be implemented. The wide variety of factors hindering the effective management of land in Kano makes the recommendation of simple remedial measures difficult. Certain suggestions would appear logical and relevant from the analysis of the problems of the city, but may be impractical because of their apparent connection to wider social and political issues. Two recommendations, however, appear to be both appropriate and have a better short run prospect for implementation. The first is that standards in land use planning and settlement development should be re-evaluated with a view to making them more appropriate to the needs of the inhabitants of the city. Secondly, the process of development control should also be re-evaluated with a view to distinguishing between types and scale of development as a means of facilitating land conversion. The planning agency may, in fact, consider developing prototype residential designs which when used may not be subject to the development approval process in order to facilitate the rate of land conversion and housing provision for lower income groups. In the long run, however, there is a need for the country to consider liberalizing its land markets as a means to improve land management. This would reduce the land management burden of state governments, limiting their action to providing services and infrastructure, controlling land development and urban expansion and alleviating the land problems of low income households.
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Acknowledgement--Research for this paper was supported under the Canadian International Development Agency sponsored Joint Ahmadu Bello University- McGill University Nigerian Indigenous Building Material Research Project. The Author acknowledges the support of Professor Pieter Sijpkes of McGill University. The author is also grateful to the anonymous referees lbr their comments
REFERENCES Aboesh. I. (1982) Housing Policy Guidelines, Kano State, a report on the framework for housing policy. Descon Nigeria Ltd Ibr Urban Development Board, Kano State. Darin-Drabkin, H. (1977) Land Policy and Urban Growth. Pergamon Press, Oxford. Dunkerley, H. B. (1983) Introduction and overview. Urban Land Policy. Issues and opportunities, ed. I-t. B. Dunkerley. World Bank, New York. Erishman, A. (1988) The rise of squatting in Kano. Squatter Settlement in Sub Saharan Africa. Towards a Planning Strategy. eds A. Obudho and C. A. Mhlanga, pp. 105-119. Praeger. New York. Garba, S. B. (1992) Urban land policies and low income housing in metropolitan Kano, Nigeria, unpublished M.Arch Thesis submitted to McGill University Montreal. Home, R. K. (1986) Urban Development Boards in Nigeria: the case of Kano. Cities 3(3), 228-236. Kano State of Nigeria (1946) The Town and Country Planning Law 1946, Chap. 130 of the Laws of Northern Nigeria. Kano State of Nigeria (1988) Budget of the Government of Kano State of Nigeria. The Economic Planning Division, Military Governors Office, Kano. Kano State Urban Development Board (KSUDB) (1980) Metropolitan Kano 2000. Master Plan, Kano State Urban Development Board, Town Planning Division, Kano. Land and Survey Division (1988) Governors Office, Kano State Kano State Hand Book for Land and Survey: Procedures and Cmidelines, Land and Survey Division, Kano. McAuslan, E (1979) Unpublished report on planning legislation in the Kano Metropolitan area. Kano State Urban Planning and Development Board, Kano. McAuslan, E (1985) Urban Land and Shplterfor the Poor. Earthscan Publications, Washington, DC. Odunlami, T. (1989) Management problems of urban land development in Nigeria: a case of the Kano Urban Development Board. Land Development Studies 6( 1), 41 55. Swedish Council for Building Research (SCBR) (1983) Report of the United Nations Seminar qf E~pert on Land for Housing the Poor, Tall, Sweden, 14 19th March.-
Pergamon
PII:S0197-3975(97)00008-8
Public Land Ownership and Urban Land Management Effectiveness in Metropolitan Kano, Nigeria SHAIBU BALA GARBA
Department of Architecture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
Rapid urban population expansion in the developing world has created the need for effective land management in urban areas. Effective urban land management is important because of its implication in social and economic development. Public intervention and control of land markets is generally viewed as one of the best means of ensuring the effective management of land. In Nigeria, land was nationalized in 1978 as a means of improving equity in access to it and its management. Studies of the Kano metropolitan area, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, indicate that urban land m a n a g e m e n t is characterized by a lack of effectiveness. This paper reviews the factors contributing to the current ineffectiveness in land management in the metropolitan area. In general, the paper notes the need to link recommendations of public ownership of land with requirements necessary for effective management and to contextual issues in the locality where the policy is to be implemented. The paper concludes by recommending that the Kano state government should consider re-evaluating the existing land use control regulations and procedures in the city with a view to introducing a more appropriate and sustainable control system. The paper also recommends that Nigeria should consider liberalizing its land markets as a means of improving land management effectiveness. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: land; planning; urban management; Nigeria INTRODUCTION The p h e n o m e n o n of rapid urban population expansion taking place in the developing world is an issue that has been well discussed in the research literature. One of the consequences of the rapid urban population expansion is the need for effective urban management. Effective urban management is necessary in order to improve social and economic conditions in urban areas. Urban land is one of the resources in need of effective management because of its importance in social and economic development. Policies relating to land produce a chain reaction which runs through the social and economic fabric of society. Effective land management is also necessary in order to ensure the orderly growth and development of urban areas and to Correspondence to." King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. Box 1219. Dhahran, 31261. Saudi Arabia.
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improve access to services and infrastructure. The inability to develop effective land management that ensures the adequate supply of affordable land to meet the needs of all income groups usually leads to prevalence of practices that hamper the ability to order and manage urban development. Public intervention and control of land markets is one of the means usually advocated for improving urban land management. Some level of public control is generally seen as desirable to ensure that land is used in the best interest of society. In some communities, public control takes the form of outright public ownership of land and its management. The 1976 United Nations Habitat Conference in Vancouver recommended public ownership of land as a means of controlling areas of rapid urban expansion. In Nigeria, land was nationalized in 1978 following the Vancouver conference as a means of improving equity in access to it and its management. In many Nigerian cities, however, existing conditions and practices appear to suggest a lack of effectiveness in land management. In the Kano Metropolitan Area, studies by Frishman (1988), Garba (1992) and others have found a growing ineffectiveness in the management of land in the city. The aim of this paper is to discuss the factors contributing to the lack of effectiveness in land management in the city. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section discusses theoretical and organizational issues in public land management intervention. The second section presents the effects of the existing land management situation on Kano. The third section presents the framework for land management in the city, and the last section reviews the causes of land management ineffectiveness in the metropolitan area.
P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T I N T E R V E N T I O N IN U R B A N L A N D M A R K E T S
Examinations of land issues are generally carried out within the framework of market theory. Discussions center on the failure of land markets resulting from the inherent characteristics of land. Among these characteristics are the fixed supply of available land, the undepreciable nature of land, the subjectivity of investment in land to laws of diminishing return, the potential for the use of land for investment rather production, the location-specific nature of land and the difficulty in quantifying land. The need for public intervention and control of land markets stems from the perception that unregulated land markets have a potential to produce failures, which may lead to socially undesirable consequences. Among the common failures associated with land markets are: problems in the provision of public goods; problems of externalities; speculation in land; and exclusionary land markets. Interventions are usually aimed at controlling the market failures, thereby ensuring efficiency and equity in the functioning of land markets and also achieving other urban development objectives. The level of intervention in land markets varies between countries depending on ideological orientation, but falls within a range that spreads from laissez-faire economies, where market allocation of land prevails with minimal, usually positive, intervention, to command economies, where land is completely owned by the public sector, with a central agency controlling the allocation of rights. Measures used in intervention are a combination of legal and fiscal measures, and direct public participation. Several factors have been hypothesized to affect the effectiveness of public land management interventions (Darin-Drabkin, 1977; McAuslan, 1985; Dunkerley, 1983; SCBR, 1983). One of these factors is the availability of appropriate and coordinated policy guidance. Countries have different social, economic, political and historical backgrounds. The effectiveness of land policy measures is determined by the appropriateness of the measures within the context of these backgrounds. The coordination of policy measures to minimize side effects is also an important factor in land management because of the variety of policy measures used and the sometimes conflicting objectives put forward for these policies. The
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interorganizational system for managing land also affects the effectiveness in its management. The definition of clear institutional responsibility, the level of interorganizational coordination between management institutions, the capacity of the institutions and the availability of information are all factors that affect land management effectiveness. The prevailing administrative system and political philosophy also affect land management. Conflicts between the different levels of governments, inefficiency and corruption in the administrative systems and lack of obligation to obey rules by the citizenry could all affect the level of effectiveness in land management.
EFFECT OF THE LAND SITUATION ON KANO
Kano metropolitan area is located in the northern part of Nigeria, It is among the country's four largest urban areas and it is also the largest urban area in the northern part of the country. The city is the capital of Kano State, one of Nigeria's 31 states. Figure 1 shows the location of the city. Estimates of the city's population are unreliable because of the dearth of statistical data in the country. In 1984, the population of the city was estimated at 1.653 million inhabitants. Current estimates put the population of the city at between 2.5 and 5 million. The public ownership of land in Nigeria gives the public sector absolute control over the land market. This should ideally make it easier for the government to achieve its urban development objectives. A review of the land and housing situation in Kano reveals a prevailing lack of effectiveness in land management. Manifestations of this lack of effectiveness are found in common practices in the city and in the city's pattern of growth and development. One of the prominent problems of the city is the growing shortage in the supply of ripe land for development despite the public ownership of land. Several studies (Odunlami, 1989; Frishman, 1988; Aboesh, 1982; KSUDB, 1980) have reported that Kano is facing a growing shortage in the supply of land for development. This shortage was projected to have started around the 1960s, when the population of the city began to increase rapidly, and restrictions were placed on the use and transfer of land with the creation of institutions to manage it (Frishmam 1988). The inefficiency in some current land management practices also contributes to exacerbating the land shortage and contributes to highlighting the ineffectiveness in
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land management. An example of such inefficiency is found in land subdivision, with land being subdivided into very large plots in certain areas of the city. Figure 2 shows the spatial development patterns of two areas of the city; Nassarawa and the Walled City. Nassarawa, despite being located in the city centre is characterized by large plot subdivisions and detached housing. This is in contrast to the compact structure which obtains in the traditional walled city. This inefficiency not only limits land supply but also reduces the impact of public investment in the provision of services. Another problem relates to distributional equity in the allocation of the limited land that is supplied to the city. The city has witnessed an increase in corruption in the land allocation process, with the land allocation system characterized by fraudulent practices. Land is allocated not on the basis of need but as a form of patronage. A member of the staff of the agency responsible for land allocation pointed out that land is "usually allocated not on the basis of want or need, but on the basis of who you know in the allocation agency, or what power you wield in the society". An inquiry into the land development and allocation process in 1980 found it rife with numerous irregularities, such as multiple assignment of the same plot, payment and bribes for land, confiscation of land without compensation, and allocation of land reserved for public uses (Frishman, 1988, p. 114). It is common, even as at December 1991, when the last case became public, to find a single individual with an allocation of up to 10 plots. The staff of the Division were even reported to have gone on 'strike', refusing to open files for land allocation or take allotees to their land, because they were ignored in the allocation process. A former governor of the state was reportedly jailed for corrupt land allocation practices (Home, 1986, p. 231). The development of a speculative market in land despite its illegality is also a major problem in the city. With a growing population and an inadequate supply of land, the limited land that is supplied for development is used speculatively by land owners, which pushes up the cost of land in the city. Prices for land of as much as 100,000 Naira I was being reported by 1988, compared to the fee of 500 Naira which had been paid for land allocated by the public sector in the same year. Thirtyfive percent of the respondents in a survey on the Hausawa layout indicated that they had obtained their plots through a middleman and not from allocations by the allocating authority (Odunlami, 1989, p. 51). A governor of the state was reported as declaring in 1977-78 that Kano had the most expensive land in Nigeria. ~9.8 Nigerian Naira was equivalent to US$1.00 in 1990.
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Systematically eliminated from access to formal land, because of the short supply, fraudulent practices in allocation and high prices due to speculation, most low income households have resorted to the use of informal means of land and housing provision. Reports indicate that informal developments account for up to two-thirds of all new developments in the city (Home, 1986, p. 234). The three common means of housing used by low-income groups: squatting, increase in density in existing built-up areas and illegal subdivision, are all used extensively in the city. Increase in density occurs as the open areas of the city are developed and as the level of occupation of the existing housing stock is increased (Frishman, 1988, p. 105; KSUDB, 1980, p. 10). Squatting was projected to have started about 30 years ago, almost at the same time that land and housing shortages became evident (Frishman, 1988, p. 105). Squatting has been on the increase and its existence has become widely known. At least 10'7,, of the urban population is estimated to be living in squatter settlements. Figure 3 shows the location and distribution of squatters in the city and the direction of squatter settlement expansion. The use of illegally subdivided plots is common on the periphery of the urban area. Farmers illegally subdivide farm land and sell it for development. The process is going on at such a fast rate that sometimes supply is much more than demand, creating vacancies on the illegally subdivided lots. Almost all the informal developments are characterized by peripheral locations, predominantly traditional forms of construction, lack of a planned pattern of development, poor physical relationship to service and infrastructure networks, and the lack of public facilities such as adequate road access and drainage.
Planned layouts and some squatters
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Fig 3. Extent of squatting in Kano
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The effects of the existing land and housing problems on the city are evident in its physical development pattern. The physical expansion of the city, though rapid, is largely unplanned and uncontrolled. There is a high level of inefficiency in the use of services and infrastructure because of the resultant urban patterns. Substantial portions of the city lack connections to services and infrastructures, and their u n p l a n n e d n a t u r e m e a n s that a t t e m p t s at e x t e n d i n g these services and infrastructure are going to be costly. The situation contributes in limiting the ability to properly plan the present growth of the urban area to ensure optimal social and economic development. Also, if the city continues its rapid expansion and the problems are not addressed, they will probably get more complicated making future remedial action more difficult to undertake.
STRUCTURE OF THE LAND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The framework for land management in Kano incorporates input policies from both the national level of government and the state level. The focus of national land management in Nigeria is on the public ownership and allocation of land, and the control and regulation of land use. The framework for management is established by two laws: the Land Use Decree of 1978, and the Town and Country Planning Law of 1946. The principal objective of the Land Use Decree is to ensure equity in access to land. The decree vests all the land within the territory of a state in the governor of the state, with powers to designate urban areas, to grant rights of occupancy with land grants to individuals limited to 0.5 ha in urban areas, to d e m a n d rent for land, and to compulsorily acquire land needed for public use. The decree prohibits all forms of transactions in land without the consent of the governors. The Town and Country Planning Law was enacted to ensure control in the development and use of land in planning areas and to improve the amenity value of cities. The principle of land use regulation in the law is based on the designation of a planning area, and the preparation and implementation of planning schemes. The law requires all developments to be in accordance with an approved scheme or an interim development order, enacted prior to the coming into force of an approved scheme. The law provides for the establishment of planning authorities for one or more planning areas, responsible for the preparation and implementation of the schemes. These authorities have powers to expropriate land, charge land owners betterment levies and pull down illegal structures. Two agencies, acting in concert with the governor of the state, are principally responsible for the management of land and the control and regulation of land use in the Kano metropolitan area. The Land and Survey Division, an arm of the governor's office, is responsible for implementing the provisions of the 1978 Land Use Decree. The K a n o State U r b a n Planning and Environmental Protection Agency is constituted as a planning authority for Kano State under the provisions of the Town and C o u n t r y P l a n n i n g Law. The L a n d and Survey Division is responsible for the assembly, development and supply of land to meet the needs of the city, and also for land allocation. Applications for land grants are made to the Division, specifying the intended use. This application is passed on to the Kano State Urban Planning and Development Board as an application for planning permission for a specific land location. The application is assessed on the basis of its conformity to plans and recommendations are made to the governor on the grant of right of occupancy. Land is allocated by the agency on a 99 year leasehold basis, with a 2 year limit for effective development when at least 30-40% of the value of the development must be completed. Land use planning and development control derived from the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Law are the two principal instruments used in the regulation and control of land use in the Kano metropolitan area. Two types of
Public Land Ownership and Urban Land Management E[~/ectiveness
3 11
schemes, master plans and lay-out schemes, have evolved as major instruments of land use regulation (Odunlami, 1989, p. 43). The master plans often cover extensive areas, setting out the broad principles of land use and development, while the layouts are often drawn at neighbourhood levels within the context of the master plans. Planning and development control measures are in practice administered in sequence with the land development process. Three principal forms of control are used. The first is through the grant of planning permission during land allocation enabling the planning authority to administer the broad master plan and make changes where necessary. The second form of control is through the approval of development proposals. All private developers are required to submit their development proposals to the planning authority for approval. The planning authority checks the proposals to ensure conformity to standards relating to health, security and social welfare, specified in the city's building regulations. The last form of control is that of the control of building activities. Periodic inspections of developments are carried out during construction to ensure that they conform to approved plans. Where illegal developments are noticed in the city, the planning authority also undertakes the clearance of these structures. Between 1976 and 1987, clearance of illegal structures was carried out in at least six districts of the city. CAUSES OF LAND MANAGEMENT INEFFECTIVENESS Assessing the existing management structure, the factors contributing to the lack of effectiveness in public land management in Kano can be broadly divided into three categories: problems associated with the existing policy and m a n a g e m e n t frameworks, with the land management interorganizational system, and with the current land management practices.
Land policy and management framework A major requirement for effectiveness in the management of land is the availability of a defined and coordinated policy guidance. Policy guidance is usually of two kinds: 'input policies', which establish the system for management and 'output policies', which govern day-to-day action in the management of land issues. Output policies are usually contained in land policy statements or in comprehensive urban development policy statements. The policy statements identify short- term goals and objectives of land and settlement development and identify the strategies for achieving these goals. Such policy statements also guide land management institutions in the performance of their duties, and provide a means for evaluating their performance. In Kano, apart from the limited and vague objectives in the existing laws, there is a complete lack of defined output policy guidance with well-defined strategies to ensure the adequate supply of land and guide the development of the urban area. This is despite the public ownership of land. Strategies to ensure the implementation of master plans also stress negative controls to the exclusion of positive land development. This lack of defined policy guidance has left the land management institutions powerless to effectively perform the broad duties assigned to them, or to ensure the adequate supply of land. Another source of ineffectiveness in land management comes from the inappropriateness of the existing laws and regulations establishing the management system. Two major requirements for the successful public management and allocation of land are efficiency in the bureaucracy and the integrity of the management system (McAuslan, 1985, p. 38). In adopting the Land Use Decree, no attempt was made to address these issues, despite the fact that serious management problems were faced in the implementation of previous laws on which the decree was closely modelled. Issues of land ownership and allocation were also treated in the decree as
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ends in themselves rather than as means to the creation of ordered settlements. No attempt was made in the formulation of the Land Use Decree to comprehensively address the issues of planning, settlement development or urban management, despite the prevalence of a rapid rate of urbanization. Also, attention was not given to the specific problems of low-income households in the formulation of the law. The Town and Country Planning Law, enacted in 1946, has not been subject to any comprehensive review. The law, as McAuslan (1979), p. 44 observed, provides an "inadequate and out-of-date prescription of what a plan should consist of". The Planning Law stresses physical layouts only and fails to provide for a more comprehensive policy related to economic, social, and environmental factors. Also, it does not provide for the integration of more traditional aspects of planning such as transport, sewerage, water and public services, nor does it provide any coordinating framework for the interaction of institutions responsible for the provision of these services. The processes of planning and development control specified by the planning law are unclear, with no clear procedures for producing land use schemes, and no obligation for consultation with the residents of the planning area in the preparation of land use plans. In practice, the lack of a defined planning process leaves planners to undertake planning exercises in any way they can, and the master plans produced usually reflect the visions of the planners, rather than the actual needs of the urban residents. The planning system also lacks clear provisions to ensure continuity in the planning process, or once schemes are prepared and approved, to enable a review of the land use plans to reflect changes in the needs of the urban areas. This has led to a situation where plans proposed for the urban area show marked differences in both philosophies applied in planning and the urban structure proposed. Development control measures applicable in the city are also unclear and this has in practice resulted in the evolution of development control procedures that do not differentiate between types and scale of developments. The control process leads to long delays in the development approval process stretching the limited capacity of the planning agency. The specification of slum clearance as a measure of development control appears inappropriate considering the existing land and housing shortages in the urban area. The current building regulations in the city are another inappropriate instrument of land use control. Provisions of the regulation are vaguely phrased, leaving the planning authority with wide powers of not only enforcing the regulations, but also sometimes interpreting what is right or wrong within its context. This situation has created a tendency for excessive caution and over-control in the enforcement of the regulations, which contributes in restricting the rate of land development. Standards specified in the building regulation such as set-back and limits on plot utilization are also high and inappropriate within the context of the needs of the urban area. Land management interorganizational system
A properly designed organizational system, along with capable institutions, is a prime requirement in the bid to develop an effective land management intervention system. In Kano, several factors were found to limit the capability of the existing system. One of these factors is the over-centralization in decision making and management activities. There is an over-centralization in decision making with a basis in the laws giving absolute powers of control over land issues to the governor of the states. Land use planning, and land use regulation and control activities are also centralized in the state capital. From the capital in Kano, the two land management agencies, the Land and Survey Division and the Kano State Urban Planning and Environmental Protection Agency, oversee land assembly, servicing and allocation, and the regulation and control of land use in the 29 urban areas of the state, including the K a n o m e t r o p o l i t a n area. This m a n a g e m e n t structure does not
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encourage the agencies to acquire an adequate knowledge and understanding of the problems of the urban areas to support planning activities nor does it encourage the design of appropriate and informed policies and programmes in land management. It does not also provide the necessary flexibility for the adaptation of the existing instruments to the particular needs of the urban areas. This encourages the use of inappropriate and ineffective measures of control, which contributes to restricting the supply of land. The centralized powers and responsibilities makes abuse easy, especially since there are no appropriate institutional checks on the use of the powers.
Another problem of the organizational system stems from the limited capacity of the managing institutions. The existing land management institutions in Kano State are characterized by inadequate capacity. The planning authority, with a staff of 350, with less than 30 trained planners and architects, is expected to oversee land use regulation and control in 29 urban areas, including Kano. The agency has trailed behind rather than guided the development of settlements. The agency identifies its inadequate staffing and limited equipment, which has to be timeshared between its various operational units, as one of its most pressing problems (KSUDB, 1980, p. 37). The Land and Survey Division is also characterized by inadequate staffing and a lack of equipment. It has been unable to create and maintain proper records of the land ownership in the city nor has it been able to undertake a survey of the available land in the urban area. The division has also been unable to ensure the collection of land rent, due the government, or to put a check on the illegal sale of land in the urban area. This inadequate capacity serves as a disincentive to the institutions in the performance of their duties. It also contributes to their inability to police land ownership, enforce land use regulations, or plan and regulate the use of land in the urban area. Land owners are, as a result, encouraged to hold onto land and use it as they wish. Another major problem with the existing institutional structure is the conflicting mandate of the institutions. This conflict appears to have its root in the framework provided for land management by the existing laws. The Land Use Decree vests land in the governor and makes him the only authority to grant rights and interest in land. The Town and Country Planning Law, however, allows planning authorities to assemble, service and administer land in executing their duties of land use planning and development control. Because laws relating to land ownership were introduced earlier than planning laws, however, land use planning has traditionally evolved as a means of land allocation. Thus planning has always functioned in preparing layouts to guide the allocation of land by other agencies. This role of planning has produced some basic problems in the management of land. One of the problems concerns the ownership of layouts. The Land and Survey Division usually perceives layouts as its own; it therefore, "sees a major role for itself in controlling both the structure and the contents of the layouts" (Odunlami, 1989, p. 48). Because the Division is, however, an administrative unit that is closer to the political arm of government, it is more exposed to external subversive pressures. This often leads to intervention during the preparation of layouts, with pressure on the planning authority to alter layouts to accommodate the wishes of interest groups. Sometimes, the layouts are altered during allocation without the knowledge of the planning authority, thus leaving it to perform its land use control and regulation duties in a blind and confused state. Odunlami (1989, p. 48) reports an example of such a situation in the Sharada estate, where 46 additional plots were created on land reserved for recreation and open spaces by the Land and Survey Division during the allocation process. The Land and Survey Division is also responsible for specifying development covenants attached to land grants. The agency does not, however, see the enforcement of these regulations as part of its duties, and has never had a tradition of enforcing them. The planning authority, which is responsible for the enforcement of
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development regulations, does not see it fit to enforce these covenants because it did not specify them. This conflict in the enforcement of regulations leaves land owners free to hold onto their plots without fear of challenge even when the land is clearly being held for speculative purposes. A survey of one official layout showed that only 21.5% of the respondent private developers had completed the development of their plots within the 2 years specified in the certificate of occupancy. Only a further 26% had commenced development within the same period (Odunlami, 1989, p. 57). This lack of clear and defined mandates encourages speculation in land and the withholding of land from development. It also encourages the corruption in the land allocation process. The conflict in the mandates of the institutions is further complicated by the existence of relics of traditional economy. Emirs and ward heads, who formed the bedrock of the traditional and colonial land management system in the native settlements, are reported to still be allocating land under customary titles (Frishman, 1988, p. 115). The process is held to account recently for the provision of more than 1000 units of housing plots within the walled city. The actions of the emirs and ward heads, while supplying much needed land for development, contributes in undermining the ability to plan and control the growth of the urban area effectively. A principal requirement for the effective management of land is the availability of comprehensive information. In Kano, not only is a comprehensive information on land not available, but there i's also a complete lack of current and accurate information on the size of the city's population or on the social and e c o n o m i c characteristics of the population. There is also a complete lack of accurate information on such sectoral issues as housing, or transportation to aid in meaningful land use planning. The dearth of information serves to constrain the institutions in carrying out their duties limiting their ability to plan and control growth.
Land management practices The current practices and actions of both the state government and the institutions managing land appear to contribute immensely to the lack of effectiveness in land management in the city. The Kano state government, for example, appears to give a very low priority to land and settlement development issues. This low priority, which may also be held to account for the lack of comprehensive settlement policies, is evident from the level of resource allocation to the sector. Allocations to the sector in the yearly budget have been low, with no separate provision for it. Funds for land development are provided haphazardly under housing, and town and country planning programmes. In 1988, only 1.7 million Naira of the 17.1 million Naira budgeted for capital expenditure for housing and town and country planning was for housing and land development for the whole the state. This figure appears ridiculous when compared to the 2 million Naira budgeted for staff housing loans, and the 3 million Naira provision for compensation for land needed by the government. The funds provided are usually inadequate and cannot in most instances even provide the services required in the limited land that is developed (Home, 1986, p. 234; Odunlami, 1989, p. 54). This inadequate priority, which translates to poor funding, means that the sector is unable to intervene and ensure the supply of land at a scale that will meet the needs of the city. There is also a complete absence of an established programme aimed at supplying land to meet the needs of the city, despite the public ownership of land and the prohibition of private land transactions. The Land and Survey Division does not have any defined obligation to ensure that land is continuously and adequately supplied in the urban area. The Division undertakes land assembly and development activities only when the resources for it are made available by the government. This situation results in the inadequate supply of land and to the growing shortage of prime land for development in the urban area. The land shortage encourages
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speculation and the use of the informal process of housing by those who cannot get access to the limited land that is supplied for development. Sometimes, even the limited land development programmes undertaken by the division have been shown to contribute to worsening the land and housing situation of low income groups. It has been reported that that attempts to lay out new areas always result in the removal of poor people from land and the reallocation of the developed land to more influential people (Frishman, 1988, p. 54). One major problem limiting the availability of resources for land development in the existing system is the high level of subsidy in land allocation. It costs the Land and Survey Division 99,000 Naira/ha to develop land for residential purposes in 1988. The same land attracts only an annual rent of 2,500 Naira/ha for low-density development, with about 500 Naira charges on allocation to cover the cost of survey fees, the processing and preparation of certificate of occupancy and the registration of the land (LSD, 1988, pp. 10, 50-51). This high subsidy makes the replication of land development activities with the meager resources allocated difficult and makes any land development activity solely dependent on government allocation. The high level of subsidy in allocation encourages the inefficient subdivision of lots, the rampant corruption which now characterizes the allocation system, and also the use of land for speculation. Standards in practical day-to-day development control practices have also contributed to restricting land supply in the urban area. Settlement and shelter development standards, as earlier pointed out, are excessively high and inappropriate considering conditions in the city. Two aspects of the land management system where the high standards are evident are in land subdivision and in the control of development activities. The building regulations specify plot sizes of at least 180, 330 and 900 m 2 for high-, medium- and low-density developments, respectively. In practice, however, most of the residential areas have plots of between 350 and 450 m 2, with plots of up to 3600 m 2 found in the low-density areas of the city. These plot sizes are determined with little or no economic considerations. They are excessively large and unrealistic (Home, 1986, p. 232; Aboesh, 1982, p. 148). Lot sizes of 200, 260 to 270, and 375~,00 m 2 are pointed out by Home (1986, p. 232) to be adequate for high-, medium- and low-density residential developments including provisions for the traditional courtyard and reception areas ('Zaure'). The excessively large plot sizes encourage the sprawl of the urban area, restricts the amount of land that could be supplied for development if more appropriate standards are used, and makes the levy of realistic charges for land difficult. It is common among owners of such large plots to subdivide them into smaller plots. A survey in one of the official layouts showed that 20% of the plots in it had been subdivided (Home, 1986, p. 234). Apart from the high standards in land subdivision, there is also a high degree of inefficiency in the preparation of layouts and in land use in the existing developed areas of the city. Sufficient attention is not paid to infrastructure cost and land use efficiency in the preparation of layouts. Roads, which are the main infrastructure cost, take up as much as 50% of the land in layout schemes despite the low level of vehicular ownership. The layouts have been found to "perform poorly when measured against such cost effectiveness indicators as plot per kilometer of estate road, ratios of internal and external road junctions, and proportions of plots with access on more than one frontage" (Home, 1986, p. 233). The poor proportioning of layout plots increases the cost of service and infrastructure provision. They also make the levying of reasonable charges and cost recovery for land development difficult. Inefficiency in layout preparation increases the cost of the provision of public services and infrastructure, limits the level of utilization of the services, encourages sprawl and contributes to restricting the supply of land tbr development in the city. Another cause of inefficiency in land management is found in the application of the building regulations in the development control process. Standards relating to
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space provision, servicing, and building materials in shelter development are high in comparison to practices common in the urban area. It is expectations from the enforcement of the regulations that, however, discourages the use of the formal process of land development. A residential certificate of occupancy issued in 1983, for example, required development to a minimum value of 116,000 Naira. This is in comparison to the estimated 1000 Naira cost of a moderate but simple mud brick building in 1980 (Frishman, 1988, p. 115). The high expectations from the enforcement of the regulations encourages people to use the more affordable informal means of land development, thereby contributing to the u n p l a n n e d and uncontrolled growth of the urban area.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION This paper has examined the problems of urban land management in the Kano metropolitan area, Nigeria, highlighting the causes of a prevailing lack of effectiveness. The paper started by reviewing the issues that motivate public intervention in land management and the factors that determine the effectiveness of such interventions. Subsequently, the land and housing problems being faced in the city were highlighted, along with their effects on the city's pattern of development. Finally the land management framework in the city was described and the factors associated with the ineffectiveness in land management were discussed. The factors were divided into three categories; problems associated with the policy and management framework, problems associated with the land management interorganizational system, and problems associated with practices in the system. The interaction of these problems provide the explanation for the lack of effectiveness in land management in the city. From the study, it is evident that public ownership of land may not always be associated with the perceived benefits of more equitable access to it and more effective management of urban growth and development. From the situation in Kano, it appears that active public involvement may contribute in constraining the land market, producing the very market failures that provide the justification for public intervention and participation in management. In general, therefore, recommendations of public ownership and management of land should always be linked to requirements for effective management, and to conditions prevailing in the locality where the policy is to be implemented. The wide variety of factors hindering the effective management of land in Kano makes the recommendation of simple remedial measures difficult. Certain suggestions would appear logical and relevant from the analysis of the problems of the city, but may be impractical because of their apparent connection to wider social and political issues. Two recommendations, however, appear to be both appropriate and have a better short run prospect for implementation. The first is that standards in land use planning and settlement development should be re-evaluated with a view to making them more appropriate to the needs of the inhabitants of the city. Secondly, the process of development control should also be re-evaluated with a view to distinguishing between types and scale of development as a means of facilitating land conversion. The planning agency may, in fact, consider developing prototype residential designs which when used may not be subject to the development approval process in order to facilitate the rate of land conversion and housing provision for lower income groups. In the long run, however, there is a need for the country to consider liberalizing its land markets as a means to improve land management. This would reduce the land management burden of state governments, limiting their action to providing services and infrastructure, controlling land development and urban expansion and alleviating the land problems of low income households.
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Acknowledgement--Research for this paper was supported under the Canadian International Development Agency sponsored Joint Ahmadu Bello University- McGill University Nigerian Indigenous Building Material Research Project. The Author acknowledges the support of Professor Pieter Sijpkes of McGill University. The author is also grateful to the anonymous referees lbr their comments
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