Abridged Report State of Osun Structure Plans Project (2014 - 2033)

The State of Osun, located in Nigeria’s South West geopolitical zone, ranks among the most urbanized of the country’s 36 states, with towns and cities in the state experiencing unprecedented population and spatial growth over the past half Century. This phenomenon, unfortunately, has occurred alongside several undesired consequences, notable among which are haphazard and uncoordinated physical development, overcrowding and congestion within inner city neighbourhoods, inadequate provision of infrastructure and services, as well as deteriorating social and environmental conditions, which make the cities generally unsustainable and unable to fulfill their potentials as engines of growth. In order to effectively address the challenges of unsustainable urbanisation and adequately position the State of Osun to actualize the objectives of its Six-Point Integral Action Plan, the State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, through a technical cooperation agreement with the United Nations Human Settle-ments Programme (UNHABITAT), initiated a project on the preparation of Structure Plans for nine of the largest cities in the State. The cities are Osogbo, Ede, Ikire, Ikirun, Ila-Orangun, Ile-Ife, Ilesa, Iwo and Ejigbo.

This initiative, which would guide the development of participating cities over the next 20 years, was also tofollow through on the state’s O-Renewal programme designed to regenerate a one-kilometre radius of the core, inner city, areas in these cities. The Structure Plans therefore proposes to integrate elements of the regeneration strategy with proposals for an overall framework to guide their sustainable growth over the period 2014 to 2033.