Government Housing Policies and Cooperative Society Housing Delivery in Oyo State, Nigeria (Published)
Housing policies of the government form one of the key determinants in defining how operational capacity and performance of cooperative societies in terms of housing provision. The regulatory frameworks that are in place to address land acquisition, housing finance, mortgage systems, building standards, and institutional support mechanism can empower or inhibit these societies in their quest to offer affordable housing to the members. This paper will look at how the government housing policy, affects the housing delivery operations of the cooperative societies in the public tertiary institutions in Oyo State, Nigeria and suggest a policy framework that will enhance their institutional capacity. The research used a mixed-method survey design; it involved questionnaires dispensed to 2,178 employees in nine purposive sampled tertiary institutions, distributed across three senatorial districts within Oyo State. According to findings, more than three out of every five citizens live in privately owned houses, and the primary means of land acquisition and finance of housing is the cooperative societies. The respondent rated cooperative housing loans as very affordable between 61% and 82% of the respondents and more than 95% of all institutions reported that government policies on cooperative operations have a very high impact on the operations. Despite this, government-sponsored housing grants and loans have remained mostly inaccessible and majority of the respondents agreed that current policies have worked against cooperative housing activities. The research concludes that as long as cooperative societies are indispensable in terms of providing housing to the low- and middle-income tertiary institution staff at affordable prices, the systemic policy impediments play a major part in influencing their success. The interventions suggested by the paper to the government are specific such as land subsidies, tax incentives, participatory mode of monitoring the policy, and the formal absorption of cooperatives in the system of the National Housing Fund.
Keywords: Affordability, Cooperative Societies, Nigeria, Oyo State, housing delivery, housing finance, housing policy, public tertiary institutions