Abstract

The operation of Cooperatives has been in existence for over a century in Nigeria and it has taken its diversifications in various forms such as thrift and credit society, multipurpose society, multipurpose union and many others; primarily to assist their members through loan acquisition for business purposes. By this, food and clothing as basic needs of man are being acquired without necessarily taking cognisance of their members’ protection against inclement weather arising from the provision of shelter. Housing, as the provision of shelter; its supply has been a global issue, predominantly in developing countries including Nigeria, needs to be supplied regularly for the masses. This paper therefore examined “Co-operative housing: a panacea for sustainable housing provision in Nigeria” with a view at enlightening all the concerned stakeholders; specifically, social co-operators, on the benefits of forming housing cooperatives. The methodology involved the use of a mixed methods research design with a case-study approach in carrying out an empirical investigation through personal interviews and a set of one hundred (100) semi-structured questionnaires administered by the executives and members of Ireposeyi Cooperative Multipurpose Society Limited, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria to obtain both the primary and secondary data. The descriptive statistics analysis method was used and the results presented through the use of tables and percentages. The study revealed that long-term duration, administrative shortfalls, leadership upheavals, social ignorance, low expertise, financial embezzlement, hastiness among others were responsible for the low practising of housing cooperative. The study concluded on the modalities for formation of housing cooperative as a panacea for sustainable housing provision. Collaborative inputs of all concerned stakeholders including governments at all levels were recommended to ameliorate the trend.