Challenges of urban housing quality and its associations with neighbourhood environments: Insights and exepriences of Ibadan City, Nigeria

A survey of housing quality and neighbourhood environments of Ibadan City, Nigeria was conducted to evaluate the housing infrastructure and to identify those areas where there is a likelihood of future incidences of disease and epidemics. Based on existing demographic and land use characteristics, the city can be divided into high, medium and low-density zones. Penalty scoring, rather than positive scoring, was used to assess the conditions and quality of houses and the neighbourhood environment in each of the zones.Houses in the high-density area have the worst property and environmental characteristics followed by houses in the medium-density area. Based on housing condition alone, approximately half of all the dwellings surveyed (n = 172) in the three zones are categorised as either substandard or unfit for human habitation. Based on neighbourhood environment, none of the high and medium-density housing areas and only one of the low density areas attained the good-scoring grade. This is attributed in part to many residents being polygamists which means the houses are overcrowded with perhaps up to eight persons per room and to tenant abuse by internal conversion to increase the occupancy rate. More than half of the houses surveyed have at least or more major defect.Recommendations include government directed infrastructure improvements; a regeneration-drive by private investors with possible displacement of residents fromthe high-density zone to new towns; a vigorous programme of housing and health education; enhanced collaboration between stakeholders to develop enforceable standards for existing housing stock and future builds

Mortgage Insurance and Housing Finance in Emerging Economies

Lending is considered to be the utilization of resources mobilized and management of associated risk. Existing literature on housing finance in the developed world identifies the high Loan-To-Value (LTV) approach for funding housing purchase as posing a significant risk to mortgage lenders. In response, developed countries have adopted mortgage insurance as the key vehicle for credit risk mitigation. In the emerging economies however, the often adopted formal housing finance mechanism is depository -based, which lacks the mortgage insurance option. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on formal mortgage tools in both developed and emerging economies and concludes that it would appear to be more beneficial for emerging economies to reform their mortgage institutions and incorporate mortgage insurance as a measure to effectively manage housing credit risk. The result of this investigation will form part of an ongoing study on housing finance in emerging economies

A fuzzy synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city development in developing countries

Purpose: This study presents a fuzzy synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city realisation in developing countries, using Nigeria as a case study. By defined and delineating the problems facing the country, more viable directions to attaining smart city development can be achieved. Design/Methodology/ Approach: The study adopted a post-positivist philosophical stance with a deductive approach. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from built environment professionals involved in the delivery of Nigerian public infrastructures. Six dimensions of the challenges of smart cities were identified from literature and explored. These are governance, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal issues. Data gathered were analysed using Cronbach alpha test for reliability, Shapiro-Wilks test for normality, Kruskal-Wallis H-Test for consistency, and Fuzzy synthetic evaluation test for the synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city attainment. Findings: The findings revealed that all six assessed dimensions have a significant impact on the attainment of smart cities in Nigeria. More specifically, issues relating to environmental, technological, social and legal challenges are more prominent. Originality/Value: The fuzzy synthetic approach adopted provides a clear, practical insight on the issues that need to be addressed before the smart city development can be attained within developing countries

Contribution of Procurement Capacity of Public Agencies to Attainment of Procurement Objectives in Infrastructure Procurement

Purpose: Effective procurement of infrastructure is linked to the attainment of the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations. While the capacity of organisations is generally thought to be related to organisational performance, there is a lack of empirical insights concerning the contribution of procurement capacity of public organisations towards the attainment of procurement objectives in infrastructure procurement. Thus, it is unclear which aspects of the capacity of public procurement organisations contribute the most to the attainment of procurement objectives in the procurement of infrastructure. This research sought to address this gap. Design/methodology/approach: The research used a survey of public procurement professionals which yielded 590 responses. Findings: Exploratory factor analysis of 23 organisational capacity items revealed three components of organisational procurement capacity: ‘management of the procurement process’; ‘human and physical resources’; and ‘financial resources and management’. Multiple regression modelling of the relationship between the components and the attainment of 12 procurement objectives further reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between the three components and all the objectives. However, ‘management of the procurement process’ emerged as the greatest contributor to the attainment of seven objectives, whereas ‘human and physical resources’, and ‘financial resources and management’ were the greatest contributor to the attainment of one objective and four objectives, respectively. Originality/value: The study provides strong empirical justification for investment in the development of procurement capacity of public agencies involved in procurement of infrastructure. Furthermore, procurement capacity development of specific capacity components can be prioritised based on the relative contribution of capacity components to the attainment of desired procurement objectives. This should be useful to government policy makers as well as multilateral organisations that fund infrastructure and procurement reforms in various countries

Polymorphisms of −174G>C and −572G>C in the Interleukin 6 (IL-6) Gene and Coronary Heart Disease Risk: A Meta-Analysis of 27 Research Studies

OBJECTIVE: Elevated serum IL-6 level is a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). The -174 G>C and -572 G>C polymorphisms in the IL-6 gene have previously been shown to modulate IL-6 levels. But the association between the -174 G>C and -572 G>C polymorphisms and the risk of CHD is still unclear. A meta-analysis of all eligible studies was carried out to clarify the role of IL-6 gene polymorphisms in CHD. METHODS AND RESULTS: PubMed, EMBASE, Vip, CNKI and CBM-disc were searched for eligible articles in English and Chinese that were published before October 2010. 27 studies involving 11580 patients with CHD and 17103 controls were included. A meta-analysis was performed for the included articles using the RevMan 5.0 and Stata 10.0 softwares. Overall, the -174 C allele was not significantly associated with CHD risk (ORs = 1.04, 95%CI = 0.98 to 1.10) when compared with the -174 G allele in the additive model, and meta-analysis under other genetic models (dominant, recessive, CC versus GG, and GC versus GG) also did not reveal any significant association. On the contrary, the -572 C allele was associated with a decreased risk of CHD when compared with the -572 G allele (ORs = 0.79, 95%CI = 0.68 to 0.93). Furthermore, analyses under the recessive model (ORs = 0.69, 95% = 0.59 to 0.80) and the allele contrast model (genotype of CC versus GG, ORs = 0.49, 95% = 0.35 to 0.70) yielded similar results. However, statistical significance was not found when the meta-analysis was restricted to studies focusing on European populations, studies with large sample size, and cohort studies by using subgroup analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The -174 G>C polymorphism in the IL-6 gene is not significantly associated with increased risks of CHD. However, The -572 G>C polymorphism may contribute to CHD development. Future investigations with better study design and large number of subjects are needed

An overview of residential real estate financing in Nigeria

The housing sector, changes in the housing markets, and the systems of housing finance have significant implications on the financial markets, macroeconomic stability, and monetary policy. Therefore, most economies in the developed world adopt policies that make investment in their housing sectors attractive, resulting in their ratio of outstanding mortgage to GDP being above 50%. However, in most of the emerging/developing economies like Nigeria, even with resources at their disposal, the ratio is below 2%. This paper examines aspects of financing for housing acquisition over a period of time in Nigeria. The conclusion highlights pitfalls that need to be overcome; one of which is the need to adopt other means of mobilizing long-term liabilities to fund housing finance rather than depending on short-term deposit liabilities

Multi-criteria evaluation model for the selection of sustainable materials for building projects

Sustainable material selection represents an important strategy in building design. Current building materials selection methods fail to provide adequate solutions for two major issues: assessment based on sustainability principles, and the process of prioritizing and assigning weights to relevant assessment criteria. This paper proposes a building material selection model based on the fuzzy extended analytical hierarchy process (FEAHP) techniques, with a view to providing solutions for these two issues. Assessment criteria are identified based on sustainable triple bottom line (TBL) approach and the need of building stakeholders. A questionnaire survey of building experts is conducted to assess the relative importance of the criteria and aggregate them into six independent assessment factors. The FEAHP is used to prioritize and assign important weightings for the identified criteria. A numerical example, illustrating the implementation of the model is given. The proposed model provides guidance to building designers in selecting sustainable building materials. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Problems influencing craftsmen's productivity in Nigeria

The activity sampling technique was used on seven construction sites in Nigeria to determine how the working day was being utilised by craftsmen in bricklaying, joinery and steel fixing trades. Actual working time was observed to be 51% of the working day for bricklayers, 44% for joiners and 56% for steel fixers. The rest of the working day was spent on nonproductive activities. The problems causing nonproductive periods were identified via an operative questionnaire survey. The three highest ranking problems impairing craftsmen's productivity were lack of materials, inadequate tools and work repetition. © 1987