Housing Policy and Provision to Civil Servants in Oyo State: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Primary and secondary data were utilized for this study. Primary data were collected through the administration of questionnaire to 363 civil servants in Oyo State from sample frame of 3,627; reconnaissance survey and the conduct of in-depth interviews with the Director and the Head of Works of the Housing Corporation as well as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministryof Lands and Housing. Secondary data were extracted from government gazettes and documents, academic journals, relevant textbooks, and the internet. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of this study revealed that loans are not easily accessible to civil servants to build or purchase houses and the ones provided are inadequate. The ones available are keenly competitive. None of the civil servants
have benefited from their contribution to housing funds. The study found that government houses are not well structured and the available facilities are deficient in quality. There is poor commitment of government to provision of houses for civil servants. The regression analysis conducted shows that the quantity of housing utility supplied does not affect the quality of housing as evident in the R square of 0.031 at F-value of 0.682 with P >0.05 significant level. Also, salary of civil servants does affect the quality of housing demanded as seen in R square of 0.111 at F-value of 0.934 with P >0.05 significant level.This study concluded that the commitment of government to provide houses for civil servants is not encouraging. None of the civil servants in Oyo State who contributed to National Housing Funds have benefitted from it and loans provided for housing by Oyo State Staff Housing Board is grossly inadequate.