Socio-Economic Attributes of Residents of Slum and Shanty Areas of Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

The slum environment has come to stay in developing world of Africa, Latin America and Asia where the governments, non- governmental organisations and international bodies have failed to properly manage the incessant activities of residents in some of the slum areas across the globe. In this paper, the socio-economic characteristic of residents in Ijora-badia was investigated. Some of the socio-economic characteristics data were collected through questionnaires, personal interview, direct observation and focus group discussion. Some of the socio-economic attributes considered were marital status, education qualification, occupation/professional status, household income among others. The research population was based on the total number of the existing buildings from which the total numbers of household heads were determined and 5% of the total household head population was taken for the interview. The total number of 189 questionnaires were administered and responses were taken. Findings reveal that majority of the respondents which amounted to 30.2% were involved in petty trading which has direct effect on their daily income and standard of living. It is also discovered that the incomes of about 39.2% of the respondents are meager to cater for their immediate families; this makes the study area vulnerable to several criminal tendencies. The paper recommends that there should be synergy between the government and the residents of Badia by given them loan with no or little interest rate to boost their business in order to enhance their income and as well attend to their living environment. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n9p656