This paper describes the inadequacies of public provision for solid
waste collection and disposal in Benin City (and also in other Nigerian cities) and
the limitations of the privatized schemes that have sought to address these inadequacies.
Its description of solid waste management in Benin City draws on the
author’s interviews with 591 households which revealed that three-fifths had no
solid waste collection service and which highlighted the inadequacies in the services
for much of the rest. The paper also describes the lack of resources available to the
public agency responsible for service provision and the inadequacies in the privatization
scheme set up in 1995 to address this issue. It ends by stressing the need for
private provision arrangements that are tailored to the characteristics of different
parts of the city and by suggesting the kinds of arrangements that should work
better in the low-income areas which are generally the ones least served by conventional
public sector or privatized arrangements.