Assessment of Effectiveness of Housing Intervention Strategies of Universities-based Cooperative Societies in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

The growing demand for University education has led to the gradual elusion from residential housing needs of staff to the development of more academic facilities and no tangible plan has been made to provide housing for University staff. This paper assesses the effectiveness of housing intervention strategies of Universities-based Cooperative Societies to the staff of Nigerian Universities in Southwest Nigeria. Data were collected from 452 members and 6 officials across the 6 (six) purposively selected Federal Universities based Cooperative Societies in the South west Nigeria. Data were obtained on the strategies of housing intervention of these Cooperative Societies. The study revealed that the 6 (six) Cooperative Societies employed nine (9) strategies of housing intervention in the housing delivery process while specific loans for purchase of land; land acquisition, layout and allocation; provision of special loans for renovation of existing buildings; and processing of building and land title documents were the most effective housing interventions of the Cooperative Societies in meeting housing need of the University staff. The study concluded that while University-based Cooperatives have alleviated the problems of housing provision of their Cooperating members, there is need to further strengthen the capacity and growth of such Cooperative Societies toward assisting Nigeria University staff in the actualizing homeownership, especially in those areas of interventions where they are seriously less effective, such as contributory homeownership scheme and accessing housing loans from government agencies/banks. Government at all levels need to encourage the sustainability of housing interventions of Cooperative Societies in Nigeria with a view to eliminating the housing problem of University staff.