Abstract
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.