Self-build housing methods have been widely used in traditional western Nigeria in housing development. Recently, however, there has been a shift to other Westernized concepts of housing development which are observed to be more capital intensive than the traditional methods. While these westernized concepts are beneficial to the few high-income earners, the urban poor who are in the majority is left at a disadvantage. Therefore, the paper qualitatively examined methods of housing provision employed by the urban poor in Nigeria urban centres and their consequences on the urban landscape.

The paper further appraised the self-build housing concept employed in the past by the urban poor in providing affordable housing. The study identified that the urban poor employed rudimentary self-build housing methods as an ingenious way of housing provision in a depressed economy. In addition, it was identified that the increase in slums and squatter settlements in Nigeria urban centres was a result of the weaknesses inherent in the rudimentary traditional self-build housing methods.

The paper concluded that decent and affordable housing for the urban poor can be achieved by harnessing self-build housing methods through the acquisition of trade-modern construction technology and providing adequate construction monitoring framework policies. The paper recommends the use of compressed stabilized laterite bricks for self-build housing construction by the urban poor.