Rapid population growth in Nigeria means that the contestation for land, housing and infrastructure will intensify with serious implications for heritage protection. The federal government is currently implementing its economic recovery and growth plan (ERGP) with the aim of reducing poverty and inequality through job creation and restoring economic growth in a more diversified and competitive economy. The ERGP prioritizes tourism and the creative industries but is mainly silent about heritage protection. The problem is that the focus on economic benefits and yields from non-material and propagative aspects of culture obscures the critical issues that are affecting the regulative systems for heritage protection. This article therefore presents a detailed analysis of the nature and scope of these regulative systems in Nigeria with a view to determining the extent of their efficacy and impacts and it further makes recommendations on the way forward.
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