Urban Land Use and Informal Sector Economy in Nigeria (original) (raw)

1. ABSTRACT One of the sectors of the Nigerian economy which have grown consistently and progressively is the informal sector activities. The growth has been linked with their necessities or to what urban economists will refer to as high demand for their services. Although, there are no reliable data on the number of people engaged by the sector in the cities in Nigeria, it is evident that the number is huge. In Lagos State, the scenario is not different. Indeed, it is at a larger scale. The character, status and location of the State in the geographic and economic setting of Nigeria has further enhance activate the sector in the state. They are found in various locations within the State. It is an attempt to enhance the activities with regard to proper urban land use planning that necessitated the need for a research in this direction and forms the basis of this paper. The findings of the paper show that by their nature, the native of the activities in which they engaged are ancillary or partially manufacturing/processing related. Some are even service based. The volume of employment and trade generated by their activities therefore, made it necessary that physical planning efforts be made to enhance activities in the sector. This becomes very apposite when it is realized that their activities have serious implication on land use pattern and the general human settlements structure. It is worthy to note that the sector is dominated by the poor, as activities in the sector do not necessarily require huge capital either as start up or operation. As a way of tackling the problem, one of the recommendations is the promotion of small and medium scale enterprises and urban informal activities. Human activities take place in space. The capacity of the informal sector economy to absolve a teeming population of the unemployed into the labour force has posed a considerable challenge to urban land use planning and management not only in Nigeria but also in some other developing countries of the world. These urban land use problems are being aggravated due to urban growth and the consequent phenomenal increase in population as well as the unstable state of the urban economy whereby more people are diverting into these informal activities for daily survival and sustenance of livelihoods especially for millions of people who have either been retrenched from their jobs, or whose incomes are no longer sufficient to support basic needs (Meagher and Yunusa, 1996). This challenge is borne out of the capacity of the sector to generate land use problems such as sprawl problem, incongruous land uses, building alterations, the menace of temporary structures, alteration of land use functions, open space conversions and land degradation (Okeke, 2000). The informal sector refers to the part of the economy that does not fall under the purview of organized economic activities. The concept has a very interesting and chequered history. As the concern of the world community increased over the lack of economic growth and perpetuation of poverty in the developing countries,