By Gbenga Akingbule
African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) unveiled an initiative on Tuesday aimed at empowering low-income residents of informal settlements in Maiduguri by helping them to secure land titles.
Gatekeepers News reports that Prof. Diana Mitlin, the ACRC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), made this known while speaking on catalysing reforms in 12 African cities in Nigeria inclusive at a media parley in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.
“56 per cent of Africa’s urban population live in informal settlements.
“So there is recognition of the need to think about the needs of that group,” Diana, the professor of global urbanism at the University of Manchester said.
According to the ACRC’s findings, people living in the informal settlements constituted two-thirds of Maiduguri’s population.
The ACRC which is funded by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is part of the UK’s Aid to African cities.
The African Cities participating in the project were Lagos and Maiduguri in Nigeria; Accra in Ghana; Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Dar es Salaam in Tanzania; Freetown in Sierra Leone; Harare in Zimbabwe; Kampala in Uganda; Khartoum in Sudan; Lilongwe in Malawi, Mogadishu in Somalia and Nairobi in Kenya.
“There is also realisation that many people in the urban areas have come to the cities and the cities were unprepared for them they lived informally, they have insecure tenure and frequently very limited access to the basic services that are essential for good health, and for economic prosperity.
“So when people are living at low density there is less need for public services,” Diana said.
Diana added that, as residential density increases people need to have access to good water, sanitation, roads, houses, and drainage to manage flood waters and reliable energy for many economic activities to take place.
“So there is recognition that the challenge of the informal neighbourhoods is very considerable.
“There may be low-income people living in formal areas and many economic activities are also informal and poorly connected to the more formal businesses growing rapidly,” Diana said.
