Housing Condition in Student Village, Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State

Abstract

Housing is of paramount importance to human existence, as it ranked among the top three basic needs of man aside food and clothing. The aim of the study is to assess the housing condition in the student village of Federal Polytechnic Bida. The research is guided by three objectives. One is to take inventory of the existing housing stock. The second describe the characteristics of the housing in relation to the standard of decent housing; with emphasis on accessibility, living condition of the people, room occupancy ratio, functionality of facilities, age of building and maintenance of the buildings. While the third objective recommends measures to improve the housing condition in the study area. Systematic random sampling procedure was employed in this study. The sample frame was 350 buildings. The sample size for the students were 70 buildings, representing 20% of the sample frame. Fourteen (14) house-owners representing 5% of the house-owners of the 70 buildings were also randomly selected for questionnaires administration, in total; eighty-four (84) questionnaires were administered. The result revealed that 51.5% of the student’s respondents had more than 10 rooms in their lodges, leading to over-utilisation of the existing facilities. However, the room occupancy ratio was averagely low with 58.6% of students occupying 1-2 students per room. The main accommodation type was compound house (74.2%). Many of the houses (57.4%) were between 21-30 years old range. Housing maintenance by the landlord was poor as only 14.3% of them had bi-annual maintenance. The access road within the study area was fair (57.2%) subjecting the area to flooding during raining season. 70% of the building flooring material was cement block while 100% of roofing material was aluminum roof and were old. These findings conclude that the housing condition in the student village fails to promote decent housing. It, therefore, serve as a wakeup call to the Nigerian government to exhibit an interest in housing by promoting, among others, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in constructing sustainable students’ housing particularly in Bida, and, generally in Nigeria's educational areas.