Strategies for the Maintenance Management of Hostel Buildings in Nigeria (Published)
A directive was given in 2004 by the Federal Ministry of Education that federally-owned tertiary institutions should hands off hostel management. Consequent on the directive, Nigerian tertiary institutions now have both institutional and non-institutional hostels serving tertiary institutions. This no doubt has a lot of implications on the nature of management and maintenance of hostels in Nigeria.This paper assessed maintenance management strategies adopted in the maintenance of hostel buildings in Nigeria and formulated guidelines for the maintenance of the hostels using the field data collected from the Federal Polytechnic Oko for the case-study. In order to achieve the objective of the study, opinions of hostellers, school management, maintenance heads and private developers were sampled through structured questionnaires. The data collected were quantitatively analysed and the result of the analysis indicated the following as the problems of maintenance; non-availability of funds, indiscipline and lack of functional operational frame work and regulatory body, climatic conditions, lack of good maintenance culture, lack of skilled maintenance personnel, use of foreign building materials and unethical behaviours as some of the key factors responsible for poor maintenance work and management of hostels in tertiary institutions. Effective strategies that should include a stipulated guide overseen by a body of professionals to enforce maintenance in hostels to avoid complacency, the adoption of a maintenance manual to be strictly monitored and the use of a computerised management system that will ensure proper maintenance records were recommended.
Keywords: Maintenance Management, Nigeria, Strategies., Tertiary Institutions, computerised maintenance management system, hostel buildings
ESTABLISHMENT OF STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING AFFORDABLE AND HABITABLE PUBLIC HOUSING PROVISION IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA (Published)
This view of this study was based on the establishment of strategies for improving affordable and habitable public housing provision in Anambra state, Nigeria. This study utilized a survey research design in the collection of data. The universe of study consisted of 2,805 occupants comprising mainly households, and 2,805 house units, comprising 1,032 in Awka city and 1,773 in Onitsha city. The sample size of 30% (842) was used as derived from Taro Yamani technique. A stratified random sampling of these disparate public housing estates based on their proportion to population was studied. A 16-item structured questionnaire on establishment of strategies for improving affordable and habitable public housing provision in Anambra state, Nigeria (QSAHPH) was developed. This instrument was face and content validated. Cronbach Alpha Technique index was used for reliability test which gave a value of 0.90. The data were obtained by pulling all positive responses for each group of occupants (Awka or Onitsha) as positive responses and as negative responses and their proportions obtained and filled below pooled observations (counts). Undecided responses were left as neutral. Complete responses were 797 comprising 299 occupants in Awka and 498 occupants in Onitsha. The research questions were processed using percentages. The major finding of the study was (1). Hence, the inference is that occupants in Awka perceived this dimension of public housing more positively than occupants in Onitsha. This difference between the two cities needs to be addressed in order to validate the Adam’s equity requirements in the built environment.
Keywords: Establishment, Nigeria, Strategies., public housing