INFORMAL LAND DELIVERY AND LAND ADMINISTRATION IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The accelerated pace of urbanisation in Nigeria has heightened the use of informal land delivery systems with very profound effects on land administration, governance, and sustainable urban development. This paper explores the thematic dimensions and impact of informal land delivery on land administration in South-west Nigeria, based on survey data from estate surveying and valuation, land surveying, and town planning firms, which is augmented with qualitative interviews. The most prevalent challenges presented by informality were determined using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and principal component regression. The findings indicate that bureaucratic inefficiencies, tenure insecurity, and market distortions are the most vital limitations to a successful land administration, whereas planning and infrastructural deficiencies, although less significant statistically, are also applicable in determining settlements. It was determined that informality helps in providing access to low-income people, but at the same time, compromises transparency, undermines tenure security, and continues to create inefficiencies in urban management. The research findings conclude that informality cannot be resolved through suppression but rather through reform processes that focus on administrative and legal simplification as well as participatory forms of governance that cut across formal systems and local realities. The implications of these findings are broader to the Sub-Saharan Africa region, where there is a necessity to strike the right balance between informality and formalisation to create resilient and sustainable urban land markets.