INTRODUCTION The urban fringe constitutes an important interface in settlement continuum and for a developing country such as Nigeria, it provides a buffer for people, urban physiology and economy and in particular livelihood and services. The fringe is seen as the frontier in space where the returns to land from traditional and customary urban land uses are roughly equal to the returns from traditional and customary rural land uses (Hite, 1998). It is space located outside the limit of the city (Avram, 2009 and Saxema, 2008). Such area reflects the pressure of the city on the surrounding neighbouring space (Avram, 2009). The fringe is also characterised by random, separate and fragmented growth (Alabi, 2009). Largely, fringe settlements ‘develop outside of government control and do not follow strictly formal and traditional urban planning and development processes’, (Hogrewe, Joyce and Perez, 1993). In economic term, the fringe is seen as a space where livelihoods depend on natural resources (Adesina, 2007). Hence, ‘land is characteristics to agricultural activities and the inhabitants’ way of life isspecifically rural’ (Avram, 2007). As a result, people who reside in the fringes live in the economic realm of the city but are not attracted to urban economy (Taleshi, 2009). The visible marginalisation in economy and land uses found expression in service and governance. While the atmosphere of the city reigns in the fringes, the full benefits of the city are lacking. As a result, ‘unauthorised construction, illegal sub-division, urban sprawl, environmental degradation are all parts of urban fringe’ (Uttarwar and Sokhi, 1989). The different perception of the fringes has given rise to its many names such as peri-urban, suburb, city edge, metropolitan shadow, among others (Adesina, 2007). Of all problems faced by the city, perhaps the most visible and frustrating to the residents is service deficiency manifested in low level of power supply, water supply, poor sanitation, poor and inadequate road network, poor security facilities and even economic facilities.