Nigeria Receives $200m for Urban Water Sector Reform

Culled from Thisday Newspaper

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved an International Development Assoc-iation (IDA) credit of US$200 million to support the Federal Government in increasing the supply of potable water to the inhabitants of Lagos and Cross River States. The credit is provided on standard International Development Association (IDA) terms, with a commitment fee of 0.35 percent, a service charge of 0.75 percent over a 40 year period of maturity, which includes a 15-year grace period. The Second National Urban Water Sector Reform project's principal development objectives are to: improve reliability of water supply produced by the water treatment works in Lagos, in order to increase capacity and hours of operation; increase access to piped water networks in four cities in Cross River State; and improve efficiency in order to reduce the cost of urban water utilities in Cross River and Lagos States. "The Project will vastly improve the amount of water available to consumers in Lagos and the cities of Calabr, Ikom, Ogoja and Obudu in Cross River States", said Alexander McPhail, theWorld Bank's Task Team Leader for the project. "For example, it will rehabilitate the treatment works and five distribution zones in Lagos and add 50,000 new water connections in Cross River State Capacity building is also an important project objective, where over US$2.0 million will be earmarked for training and core technical assistance for the two utilities." The Second National Urban Water Sector Reform project has four components: The first component, Rehabilitation and Network Expansion (75 percent of the total project costs), will help support new works and equipment to ensure that the water utility customers receive increased access and more dependable delivery. The second component, Public-Private Partnership Development (4% of the total project cost), will support the sector's ongoing public-private partnership development, with the objective of an enhanced customer focus and commercial orientation in the Lagos State Water Corporation and Cross River State Water Board. The third component, Service Sustainability (8 percent of the total project cost), will complement the technical and operating improvements to facilitate self-sustainability, increased efficiency and improved reliability of water supply. The fourth component, Institutional Development and Policy Reform (3 percent of the total cost), will strengthen the key sector skills, including technical operations, commercial operations, regulation, plus river basin development, and also track the nation's progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals for access to potable water and improved sanitation.

Bag Your Refuse Lagosians Told

Culled from Thisday Newspaper

Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, has advised Lagosians to cultivate the culture of bagging their refuse, stating that a new LAWMA has been put in place, adding that the activities of the agency will improve rapidly.Tunji Bello, who was speaking at the second quarterly award ceremony for the cleanest Local Government and market in Lagos, said that the award ceremony this year is the first of its kind and another milestone for others to emulate.The Ikoyi Obalende Local Government area emerged winner of the award in the LGA category and went home with N250,000 and a plaque; Ojodu N100,000 and a certificate as the second cleanest, while Agboyi-Ketu took the third position and worn for herself, N50,000 and a certificate.In the market category, Olagunsoye Oyinlola market, Amowo Odofin LGA emerged as the winner, Abasan Estate market second, while Ire-Akari Market came took the third position."On this note, the Lagos State ministry of environment commended the winners both in the local government, markets categories. In return it is expected that all the local governments, markets and mortor parks and garage s, armed forces barracks give this programe the needed support"."The prize award giving ceremony arose out of the implementation of the four cardinal programe of advocacy campaign which include quarterly environmental sanitation competition amongst Local Government Councils; School environmental beautification and landscaping programme; Two days workshops on harmonization of roles amongst environmental agencies and the media campaign. The programme is a follow up of the monthly environmental sanitation demonstration exercise".He added that there was an improvement in the level of awareness of the people on waste management in the urban and sub-urban LGAs, while indigens in the rural LGAs, especially Ijede, Epe, Eredo, Ikosi Ejirin, Badagry among others still see waste disposal as the sole responsibility of the government, stressing that they are unwilling to pay for refuse disposal. Tunji Bello, reiterated that the state government has begun the demolition of structures in drainage channels at Ketu, Alapere, adding that the next phase will be Shomolu and Victoria Island.According to him, a new Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), has been put in place, with well trained personnel's, including graduates. Adding that the state government will train the local government KAI while their salaries will be taken care of by the LGA.

Estate Developers Tackle Mass Housing

Culled from Thisday Newspaper



There is growing concern that Nigeria still does not have a framework for curbing homelessness, particularly among its low to medium income group.
Housing has been identified as a veritable tool for poverty reduction and as been enshrined as part of the Millinnium Development Goals.
REDAN is an association of private sector-based operators in the housing sector, whose aim is to provide mass housing at affordable cost.
With this in mind, the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), have resolved to tackle this challenge with a focus on "Mass Housing Delivery-A Veritable Tool for Local Empowerment-Which Way Forward?" at a two-day workshop, which will hold at the Banquet Hall, Hassan Usman Katsina House, Kaduna from Thursday February 9 to Friday February 10. The workshop holds as part of the launch of the North-West Chapter of REDAN.
The main thrust of the workshop, is the question of finance, and how to ensure adequate funding of housing developers engaged in the production of decent and affordable housing and empowering buyers of mass houses.
Hajia Aminu Ibrahim, Senior Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals, will lead the discussion, while Mallam Tanimu Yakubu, Managing Director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) will deliver the Lead Paper. Also speaking is Mallam Ali Magashi, Managing Director, Jigawa Savings and Loans Limited.
Governor Mohammed Makarfi of Kaduna State is special guest and host, assisted by the Governors of Jigawa, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States.
REDAN's President Alhaji Lateef Jakande will chair the opening and inauguration, Senator John Danboyi, Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing and Urban Development and Hon Osita Izunaso, chairman, House of Reps., Committee on Housing and Urban Development will be guests of honour.
Members of REDAN, all professional bodies, and other key players in the nation's Housing/Construction industry are expected at the event.

NSITF Takes Possession of Alagbon Towers, Plans Luxury Flats

Culled from Thisday Newspaper


It was a moment of deep emotions of relief as the keys to the imposing Alagbon Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos were handed over to Alhaji Umar Munir Abubakar, Executive Director, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), by a representative of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Minister of Housing and Urban Development, in Lagos, last week.
Alhaji Abubakar, who represented NSITF's Managing Director, Alhaji Ahmed Rufa'i Mohammed, presented a cheque of N2.4 billion to the Housing and Urban Development Ministry.
The Alagbon Towers are three huge structures built on 12,000sqm of choice land in Ikoyi. Each tower has 24 three bedroom flats.
"This property had a reserved price of N2.4 billion but following in-depth professional valuation and analysis we submitted our bid in the sum of N1.2 billion well ahead of the 15th April, 2004 deadline...the NSITF happened to be the only organisation that bidded for the property," said Alhaji Mohammed.
He said the estate would be remodeled and transformed into luxury flats by Profund Properties, the real estate partner of NSITF with South African connections, and which was represented at the presentation by its Managing Director, Mr. Michael O'Malley.
The new estate will have full recreational facilities of international standards, along with befitting landscaping. "Renovation works will commence soon as we have already engaged experts that have been working on the project," said Mohammed. Adding, "we are happy that what we intend to do will provide job opportunities to professional and skilled workers both during the renovation work or after...there will be decent accommodation for Nigerians...above all, the project will enhance the real estate portfolio of the Fund."
Dr. Mimiko said the handingover of the magnificient edifice would not have been possible but for the doggedness, commitment and determination of the Implementation Committee on the Alienation of Federal Government Landed Property to secure vacant possession of the building.
"The Committee is not unaware of the various attempts by the former occupants of the building to scuttle the reform policy of the Federal Government on the issue of shedding unnecessary burden of maintaining those structures at a high rate...government's action was underscored by the recommendation of the 'Rotimi Commission of Inquiry's Report', which enviced, inter-alia, the rapidly deteriorating condition of the properties and the urgent need for definite measures to dispose of them to the private sector, which has the capacity to maintain them...consideration was also given to the financial burden it would have placed on the civil servants if they were sold to them".
Mimiko restated government's policy to divest from the responsibility of providing residential accommodation for all categories of public/civil servants, saying that it was on account of this that government approved the leasing of its residential properties. The monetisation policy, he said was government's palliative measure to cushion the effect of its policy to divest.
He commended NSITF for their patience, cooperation and support. "If they had insisted on immediate vacant possession, the matter could have taken more time to resolve...they had been quite proactive and helpful in the whole exercise leading to this occasion".

Zenith Breathes Life into Glass and Steel

Culled from thisday Newspaper

Looking at the history of architecture in Nigeria, it can conclusively be argued that the Zenith Bank Headquarters structure is the nation's first high-performance glass building.
The building, fondly known as Zenith Heights by its developer, is a landmark and a beacon in its own axis. It occupies about 2,200sqm of Ligali Ayorinde road on Victoria Island, Lagos, and stands elegantly tall at 73 meters, from ground zero to the tip of a 21 meters mast and that of a seven meters flag pole.
The tradition of erecting whole building employing mainly glass and steel is vested in Viracon, a high-profile company in the United States, which brags that its area of expertise spans "from imaginative aesthetics to strict environmental and energy issues to critical budget requirements...we know how to help you figure out a way to make it all work when it comes to innovative architectural glass and glazing solutions."
The Viracon material used by Zenith Bank, is basically insulating, laminated, tempered, heat-strengthened, silk-screened, spandrel, wind/hurricane-resistant, acoustical, blast-mitigating and high-performance coated glass.
The sky is the limit when using this Viracon technology, as demonstrated in both the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. United States Courthouse in Miami Florida, and the Zenith Bank building, which were designed with consideration for strict environmental and meteorological conditions, particularly wind movement from the Atlantic Ocean, in the case of Zenith Heights.
This technology was tested in 2005, when hurricane Wilma hit southern Florida where the Courthouse building "was put to the true test and it performed exactly as designed...without a single glass failure! The laminated glass protected the building envelope by staying intact and within the framing system".
Zenith Heights, which is only about a hundred meters from the sea, has dual view of the Atlantic Ocean and of Victoria Island. Its construction was supervised and managed by the Bank's Property Department from its ground-breaking stage between April and August 2002 to its main construction, which started in October 2002 and was completed in September 2005.
The idea behind the building was to developed a purely hi-tech building with foremost global rating and appeal. The use of glass stems from the fact that it is enduring and makes a better statement than other materials. Glass can hardly be put within the context of time like other materials that go in and out of vogue.
It is a building that will be around for all times, even in the environment laden with salt water wind from the sea, which corrodes the exterior of buildings around Victoria Island.
To reinforce the durability of the glass material used, Viracon gave Zenith Heights developer 10 years to 15 years warranty with a provision that the glass be cleaned, with the right agent, every three to six months to ensure that the glass lasts.
To hold the frame, the developer used galvanised steel to enable it stand corrosion, and this takes it to almost half the resistance of alluminium. This is used for the mast and the stainless steel handrails, which require light maintenance.
The concept is to use materials that would be near maintenance-free, and do not deteriorate as fast as conventional materials, they are pretty expensive. The whole building is awash with cream and gray colours that exude calm feeling for both staff and visitors. The interiors also have this effect on account of the soft-bright lights and the sound-proof system.
An electronically controlled revolving door admits staff and visitors and after clearing the reception area visitors are either admitted to a huge waiting room on the right or move on to the lift area through an airport-type baggage/personal scan system.
Transportation up and down all floors is done by means of four Otis lifts and a wide spiral stairways. The lifts have capacity for 16 persons each. Three of the lifts have panoramic view (transparent) and voice alert system, while the fourth is a service lift.
Granite finishing is used on all floors. The upper floors are raised to accommodate plumbing and electrical/electronic fittings. The ceiling is made of fire retarding material and it is fitted with smoke detectors and sprinklers, which are concealed within it, making the area visually appealing.
Construction experts supervised by the Bank's Property Department include the main contractors, Cappa & D' Alberto Plc.; the Architects, Adeniyi Coker Consultants Limited; Quantity Surveyors, Austin Onaro & Associates; Structural Engineers, Sanni Ojo & Partners; Mechanical, Electrical & Electronics Engineers, Claassen Auret SA in conjuction with Adeniyi Coker Consultants Limited; and Mechanical & Electrical sub-contractors, Etco Nig. Limited.
Others are Curtain Walling & Cladding sub-contractor, Pre-planPty. SA.; Lifts, Nigeria Motor Industries (OTIS); Voice & Data Cabling, Cyberspace Nig. Limited, Electronic Security & Access Control, Interface Technologies Limited, and Sewage Treatment Plant, Satec Limited.

AHCN workshop on mortgage creation

Culled from Guardian Newspaper



IN its renewed efforts to provide viable solutions to the myriad problems of mortgage system to stimulate and enhance adequate capital into the system, the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria, (AHCN) has concluded arrangement to hold a two-day national workshop on effective mortgage creation and origination as panacea for affordable housing in Nigeria.

The event, which will take place at the Gateway Hotel, Ota from tomorrow, will provide a forum for careful consideration of the mortgage market and structures with a view to come out with viable solutions that would fashion out appropriate policies and programmes that would enhance the development of mortgage creation and origination for effective housing development.

The theme of the two-day workshop is "Developing appropriate mortgage tools for a vibrant mortgage market and affordable housing" and participants would be drawn from mortgage sectors, commercial banks, capital market, federal ministries of Finance, Housing and Urban Development, state house of assemblies and the entire housing sector of the economy.

The workshop among others will dwell on challenges, growth and opportunities in mortgage creation and origination, mortgage financing and asset/liability mismatch, as well as the challenges of mortgage repayment and housing affordability with a view to solving the riddles of mortgage loans affordability questions.

The workshop will also examine the roles of capital market in expanding mortgage creation and origination, as well as the role of FMBN in the emerging market.

The resource persons at the workshop include the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Tunde Lemo; Managing Director of the FMBN, Mr. Moses Atagher; Managing Director of the UBA Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu; Honourable Commissioner for Economic Empowerment, Mr. C.O. Okereke; Executive Chairman, Federal Housing Authority, Brig. Gen. Tunde Reis; Managing Director of UBA Global Market, Sonnie Ayere, and the Managing Director, First Call Group, Mr. Ochuko Akposibruke, among others.

Anyaoku, Muttallab, others for NIESV's fellows investiture

Culled from http://www.guardiannewsngr.com


THE Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) will early next month host its investiture for newly transferred fellows at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

A statement signed by the institution's publicity secretary, Mr. Ime UdoEtuk, said those to be conferred with fellowship grade are members who have previously been elected professional associate and put in a minimum of 10 years of active practice.

The highlights of the coming event include the award of honorary fellows to three eminent Nigerians - Alhaji Umaru Muttallab, chairman of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary General of Commonwealth and Oba Oladele Olashore, a former managing director of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.

NIESV also plans to hold its yearly Charity Walk next month to raise funds for mentally retarded persons.

Lagos State Government Proposed Eko Atlantic City

The government of lagos state in quest for giving the state a new look is proposing a lofty but attainable gigantic dream in changing the face of Victoria Island.
The proposed Eko Atlantic city as reported by Castles property Magazine, when completed will combine residential,commercial,financial touristic accomodation in a location serviced by the state of the art gadgets. The city is targeting 250,000 residents and 200,000 commuters flowing daily to the Island.
Commenting honourable Commissioner for Lagos state waterfront infrastructure development, Prince Adesegun Oniru said the project will be a long term one and what the ministry has done is to protect Victoria Island from the ocean surge and erosion problem permanently. The phase two of course will be financed by a private developer- Chagoury group, one of the west africa leading construction company.He said the sand will be taken back to where it was formerly in the late 50's and early 60's about 5 km back into the ocean,he further said all the scientific calculation has been done, all investigations done and an environmental impact assesment is being carried out now because of the magnitude of the project.
Lagos state is not spending a dime on the project, but the project will be promoted and sponsored by the Chagoury group, which are also involved in infrastructure development, dredging and land reclammation and also owns the Lagos largest hotel (Eko hotel). Currently they are developing two major projects. Banana Island in Ikoyi, a residential complex on reclaim land of approximately 1.8 million square meters and Eko Akete, an infrastructural development of approx. 400 hectares 30 km from V.I.

One of the Neglected Federal Government Properties take a new look

The ministry of Foreign affairs is now going to have a new look due to the relocation of Bank of Industry that got it old building demolished due to the unfortunate partial collapse of it witnessed sometime ago.
BOI is taking over the place in conjuction with a british oil firm to use as their present offices.
The description of work to be done would cover both internal and external work including complete upgrading and refitting of all mechanical appliances like lifts, air conditioning systems, electrical, plumbing, alternative power, sewage disposal and water treatment.
On the structural front, extensive internal partitioning of office spaces would be carried out. Besides, a new floor would be added on a wing of the building to cater for BOI. The new floor would be located at the cruciform shaped section of the property, which is expected to attract extensive work as the roof on the cruciform would be removed to give way for the planned additional floor.
Though this was necessitated by the unfortunate incident it is pertinent to know that most of the big buildings we have poorly managed by the Government should also be taking into consideration concerning their management or probably total take over to save our monumental buildings that were built with a lot of money.

At last, Multi Storey Carpark in Lagos.

An avenue for making an unending cash for a good property investor is in the area of multistorey carpark.
The Lagos metropolis is long overdue for this, unfortunately nobody is taking advantage of it.
Most necessary is the Lagos business district, Marina. I have long discovered this gap that is why my final thesis then in the School of Architecture Ambrose Alli University was a MultiSCP which was designed for the present place where vehicles are parking in that area.Then it was a N100 fee to park in this place, now for obvious reasons it must have increased with the continous overstretching of facilities in Marina.
The Guardian newspaper just reported a proposal by FAAN Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria of building a three storey carpark, which will be available for air travellers. Is to be built on BOT -built operate and transfer basis. The authority is using the PPP Public-Private-Partnership to achieve this because of lack of funds.It will have to be on build and transfer ,hence infrastructures may collapse if we keep waiting for government everytime for subventions that are now practically non-existent. Contract will be awarded in a short time and I hope the success of this will create more room for Multi storey carparks that are long overdue.Because money will be generated for any investor that is smart enough to take advantage of this.
Though of high capital budget, Banks with few private individuals can invest on this. Check http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/homes_property/article10

Insure your house or face the consequences

Nigerians seldom insures their house/properties due to general loss of faith in the insurance industry.
Insurance companies needs money just like the bank and is good to know that with the present consolidation in insurance sector, monies are now available to run the sector effectively as it should be.
It is pertinent to know that money spent on insurance is not a waste of money.

Why do people hate to insure:

The loss of faith in the sector, there are cases in the past when premiums were not paid to the client based on flimsy excuses from the insurance firms.
Lack of adequate funds in these firms.
Belief that nothing negative will happen to you or your property based on your religious belief.
Uncommon cases of natural disaster
Illiteracy or lack of adequate knowledge on benefits of insurance.
Poor marketing of packages by the firms.
The above reasons amongst others contributes a lot to less vibrant insurance sector in our economy.
But we can smile now because of the consolidations and general reforms going on in the sector.

Benefits:

Policy holders have a lot of insurance shemes to chose from , but we will be concentrating on the area that may affect your building.

-Insurance of Building Under Construction:

You are neither the architect nor the structural Engineer that designed your building, you are also not the builder, but you can’t base faith on the building structural disposition wise just because professionals are involved.
There are cases of houses designed by these people that do collapse though very rare.
For building under construction, especially the one that is more than two floors, it is mandatory you provide an insurance cover against construction risks caused by negligence of you the owner, the professional onsite and other workers, this covers body injury, loss of life or damage of property by workmen or anybody on site.

-Public Building Insurance:

Due to how prone public buildings are to the effects of human and natural activities, special insurance coverage are giving to them.
They are mandated to be insured against collapse, earthquake fire, storm and flood.
Public buildings includes but not limited to a tenement house, hostel, building occupied by tenant or any building that is accessible to members of the public.

Amongst the insurance policies are

(i)Fire and Special peril:

This is most common among the houseowners or landlords. It is aimed at covering the effects of loss as a result of fire and other perils as specified in the insurance policy.
Other perils covered are household items and other personal belongings.

(ii)Burglary

As the name implies, this is targeted at loss or damage that may occur as a result of forcible entry and exit of an insured building.
This insurance policy mainly covers the insured against armed robbery attacks, theft burglary or house breaking.
However due to dare due to dare devil armed robbers of today, indemnification of property insured under this policy is now extended to cover loss incurred in such manner.

-Houseowner Comprehensive Insurance:

This combines both burglary and fire insurance. It covers the owner of the property and content or every other liability that may occur.
It is therefore a comprehensive insurance policy because the policy could be extended to the tenant that lives in the house.
If a building is affected by fire, then the policy will cover the expenses of alternative accomodation for the tenant and other personal belongings that may be affected by fire incident, if the tenant still has outstanding rent paid.

-Householder Comprehensive Insurance Policy.

This is basically for tenants or those presently occupying the building.
Tenants do not have insurable interest over the house he occupies or the apartment. But he may take up an insurance policy that will protect his belongings and cover him against accident that may occur while in the building.

How to make money as a supplier in building industry

Making Money as a Supplier in the Building Industry.
The opportunity available to you in the building industry is limitless.
Suppliers are making a lot of money now than ever.
The steps you have to take to become one may actually be the easiest.
Depends on your target you may not necessarily have the money before you begin to market a product and end up supplying same.
Most of the building materials company will be glad to have you as an individual with no money in your pocket but zeal determination and agility to market their products. A lot of them gives fantastic commission for every successful purchase made by your client.
To do this you only need to walk into some of these companies and register as a marketer for them, they will gladly give you guidelines and steps to take to make sure you are successful.
A lot of people are already doing this, so it is not a new thing and if people can be there and still doing it, then that means they are getting paid for their efforts.
Quite a few people has met me on site to introduce one product or the other to me.
But what you need is consistency, loyalty to the company you are marketing, know their products and be ready to walk, make phone calls and some trekking.
In this information age most of the building construction firms you need are already on the internet, so you can email them, get their addresses and also call, you have to invest your time, money and also be consistent.
Other and the easiest method you can get a supply is through refferal, when somebody that knows somebody somewhere is reffering you, the person is putting trust and reputation online and people tends to give contracts to reffered persons by someone close to them.
The list is endless amongst suppliers in the building industry are
-Wood suppliers
-Iron rods
-Cement
-Sand
-Granite
-Marble and Tiles
-Electrical fittings/cables
-Plumbing fittings
-Doors
-Aluminium products
-Alucobond
-Furnitures
-Burglary proof/gates
-Ceilling materials- P.O.P, asbestors slate e.t.c
-Roofing materials- aluminium,
-Iron rods
-Paints
-Interlocking stones laying and supplies
-Wire or Cables e.t.c

Problems working against building your house

Inability to build a house of your own is mostly caused by psychological factors rather than finance as most will think.

Spiritual:

The fear of building a house by some people is actually from the fear of spiritual attacks.
Due to this a lot of people have refrained or totally abandoned their dream project because they perceive a witch somewhere in their village is not happy about it.
Though this can not be proved, the only help such people can get is to meet a firebrand spiritual leader that can advise and pray for them.

The fear of your abilities:

Fear can also hinder you from trying at all when considering starting your project.
This fear usually are not necessary and is occasioned by the general belief that you must spend your entire life savings to get a building.

Ignorance or Illiteracy:

Being ignorant of how to go about your building project may also debar you from actually building and will cause you to even lose money and time trying to figure it out.

Overestimation and Underestimation:

When your consultant overestimatebeyond your means, it could make you to back out of the idea o9f building a house, underestimation may only leads to uncompleted or abandoned project. So get a good quantity surveyor to estimate for you or use two or more experienced building contractors to do it before venturing into any project.

Incessant transfer in your place of work:

This may also be a debarring factor , but you have to make up your mind and chose any of these places you are posted to to acquire a land and build, because you may not be working under that establishment forever.

Background:

Background also matters when building a house if you have being close or come from a family that appreciates building houses, you may find it easy going by the knowledge you must have gathered growing, that is why a bricklayer as poor as he might be will have a house to call his.
When the family is rich and have some plots of land then you will have a leverage for you young guys to build.

Death:

This will definitely cause a lot of houses to be abandoned by a family if the breadwinner is no more.
The only solution is for everybody to imbibe the culture of insuring life and properties.

Finance:

Inadequate finance or take home pay would make most not build. In as much as this may be the most important thing you need, for a well articulated person with regular savings from a meager income, you will still be able to build a house that can meet your budget, no matter how small.

How to build your House from a #10,000 salary

Anybody no matter the stipends he receives as the take home pay can actually build a home. It takes just determination, knowledge and persistence. A lot of people today have increasingly come to find out that you don’t need your entire life savings just to get a home. Rather what you need is adequate planning and ability to know the difference between wishful thinking, reality and actually taking action.
There are always a category of houses for every class in the society. To get a home from your salary you need two things.
Calculate the amount of your salary for 2 years. Find 30% of the sum, whatever you get, meet your building professional and ask him or her what kind of building the 30% can cover for its foundation only. You have a winner, if you get that, then know you can easily build your house with that terribly miserably low salary you take home every month.
Assuming your salary is N10,000 for 2 years your total salary will be N240,000, 30% of this will give N72,000. This can conveniently cover a 2 bedroom flat strip foundation.
But you think you can’t possibly save 30% of your income, because your salary is already too low, but let me tell you, from study carried out, no matter how extremely small you received or how poor you are, 30% of your money goes into what you can’t account for monthly. Just sit down and take stock for a month and you will see that you’ve been spending 30% and above for very unimportant things in your life.
Yes, I know cost of land is high, but that is because you don’t want to live the crowded and so called urban area for the outskirt.
You can also save for land if you put your mind on it, but if you already have one, then your dream of getting your own house will be faster than expected.
Within 10 years of determination you will complete your project.

Minimise theft on your site

The loss incur in building construction to petty thieves on site can be colossal if you choose an attitude of carelessness. When you refuse to be prudent, vigilant but to trust anybody at all. The artesans on site can steal anything handlingable from ordinary nails on site to roofing sheets and other costly and big materials on site.
First thing you you need to do when starting a site is to construct a store, which will be locked daily and the keys in the hands of the supervisor or you or someone that can give account of what transpires for the day what materials were used and what is left.
The labourers on your site can collude with your security man to move materials from your site at night so what you should do is to take proper inventory regularly of what is being used on site, what is left and what is needed the next day to be able to plan ahead.
The next thing is to make sure you make your site clean, this is important especially if you want to have a mental grab of what is going on in your site an unkempt or dirty site is where rats thrives most, because of the disorganization of the site is easy to hide and take things out of site without you noticing especially if they are much on ground. Stacking or arrangement of your materials on site is very important for you not to loose track of what is on ground. If materials are neatly arranged, they can easily be counted, thus it discourages rats on sites from carrying out their work. Know exactly what is being used on daily basis to forestall you loosing track of going ons in your site.
Don’t trust anybody as to entrust the materials on site in their hands, especially labourers who may want to sleep overnight on your site, some purposely pretends and want to sleep your site because they’ve planned to steal on your site at night when everybody must have left. Let me share with you a little on my experience of a site I handled in Maryland, Lagos. My site unfortunately had no security man of it’s own, so the security guard of the seller of the land is the one that also oversees our site, being that the site has adjourning plot that the landlady is occupying. In the day time, the security people usually reports to me on how they fend people off my site so that I can trust them with my site, but these same people usually connives with the artesans that were sleeping on site to sell some of the materials at night when everybody must have left for home.
It happens that the seller of the land which is also the landlady of the adjoining plot is troublesome and unapproachable, because of this some materials that were removed from the old building that was demolished were giving back to her just to make peace with her. The securitymen knowing fully well that we always try to avoid the woman from her troubles they decided to take advantage of this and remove some materials on site claiming that it was the woman that asked them to do it.

Your House Security

Different kinds of security measures is in place to ward off if not totally check petty thieves and burglars. But security network, in as much as we now have advancement in technology is still been broken by armed robbers. Let, talk about the common ones and we move to the more sophisticated measures.

(1) Fencing:

The traditional thing in Nigeria of today is to raise high fence round your building to avoid land encroachment and burglars to your house but in as much as this may reduce them it cannot stop the more dangerous and sophisticated thieves. Fencing perse covers gated communities either individual or group, though also helps in no small measue in cutting out intruders, it may also be a barrier to emergency services like the police or fire departments. Gate or fence with thorn wire mesh makes it even more difficult for those planning to scale the fence.

(2) Dogs;

However from time immemorial, dogs have provided good security from armed robbery atacks, burglars and unfavoured intrusions to private home. The Guard dogs helps to alert owners when strangers approaches the house, thereby protecting the family and property. The aggressive ones especially, work best for this purpose and there are a lot of varietes of them from dobermans, alsatians etc.

(3) Human Guard:

This also helps to an extent but will make you to spend money on monthly basis maintaining an extra hand in your house. There are organisations today operating private security outfits, though the efficiency at time is a suspect, they can however help to ward off petty thieves, because they are not given license to properly armed themselves by the federal government.

(4) Vigilante Group:

There are individuals now that gets licenses for guns and operate a network of vigilante group in their environment. Others have personally at home in case of attacks, though it takes a lot of proper screening for this to be achieved.

(5) Burglary proof:

Burglary proof of strong iron materials reduces too though there are cases of robbers and getting access to the house.

(6) Using the power of psychology:

There are known cases of some landlords playing low on the exterior of their house when you look at their house from outside, you'll be forced to think there is nothing valuable in the inside, but only when you are giving the opportunity to enter and judge for yourself. Some people have used this to turn away the eyes of less familiar neighbours from getting close.

(7) Underground safe:

There are people when building their houses they construct underground safe, which is only known to the landlord of the house. Others puts theirs ceillings.

(8) Security technological innovations:

The last is the security technological innovations that are now diverse and of different uses. There are alarms, CCTV monitors, screening doors etc. This accessories uses advance sensors to detect metallic objects that can be used to harm you and they can be very effective e especially CCTV monitor placed in strategic locations.

Lagosians! why you must move to the outskirt now.

Many land agents have being bombarding our electronic and print media advertising on buying affordable and large expanse of land that are now available in Lagos and its' environs. But a lot of people are not seeing the need and reason for this "check where and how to get affordable lands in Lagos" Ibafo, Mowe, Ofada, Ayobo-ota spread, Agbara-Atan-Ota, Ikorodu-Sagamu, Badagry and others are some of the numerous areas still available around Lagos where you can get cheap lands to build on. And these are the reasons why you have to be given them serious considerations.

(1) Minimal land dispute cases:

Many a land in Lagos have usually ended, up in one fight or the other due to large numbers of people trying to posess the few available lands remaining. At times after you have paid for a land you find out three other people have once paid for this same land at different time. This may leads to totally loosing the land or you may have to pay for the same land again. Yes, land disputes also happens in the outskirt infact, I have written about it before, but the advantage you have if you fall into such is that you can be given another land since there is a lot of lands still available for sale. There is a known case of someone that was given a land but delayed in building and Omo Onile have to sell the land out, and he was given one again and they later sold it due to his inability to commence work, but they still went ahead to allocate him another land. In the urban area this will be impossible to achieve since there are no more lands at all.

(2) You are unlikely to be defrauded:

Since a lot of land is there to be sold, you are unlikely to get defrauded, 419 land speculators are not common in these areas. However I'll advice you contact a professional real estate agent.

(3) Collapse of Building is not common in this area,

land is plenty and nobody finds any need to build multistorey buildings, so you won't have to worry about incessant collapse of building in urban areas.

(4) Pollution:

Air Pollution is reducing the life span of Nigerian in the cities unknown to many. The Carbon Monoxide we inhale on daily basis from vehicle exhaust is enough for us to consider moving.

(5) Vegetation:

Man no matter how hard you work needs lots of vegetation around you to have a balance health system. We may not know the damage we are causing to our health by jampacking ourselves in the overcrowded city until an health expert tells us more about it.

(6) Availability of larger land spaces is also an advantage instead of crampling ourselves in a quarter plot and half plot most people are now settling for.

(7) This lands are far cheaper :

what you will use in buying half a plot in the urban area is what you will use to buy two full plots in these places. The cost of construction is also relatively low in these areas.

(8) Fast rate of development:

You may not know, you may not feel it and you may not see it, Nigerian economy is improving, small girls and boys of yesterday are becoming men and women, they are getting married they are making more money and they are now seeking for available lands to build their house, do you expect them to demolish the ones that are already existing? No!! so where else can they get land except these places, I can assure you young couples are moving in droves to possess lands in these areas and it will be too bad if you're reading now about it and you don't take advantage of these opportunities don't wait till when the lands will no longer be affordable ( hope it won't be too late for you). I am in the field and I know people are moving in thousands right now buying these lands.

(9) These areas has advantage of the accessibility to the major expressways that will take you to the main areas in minutes.

(10) Commercial opportunities:

Another area and where I want you to look is the possibilities of making so much money from traffic these places are generating at presence.

(11) Real Estate:

Nothing more but for you to start making more and more money, the price of land annually in these areas are increasing by 50% annually and from more indication the percentage is already going far higher in places closer to the urban area. Check it, assuming you buy 2 lands at the rate of =N=200,000 each, that is =N=400,000. In a year that same land you'll sell for at worst, low price of =N=600,000. You have made =N=200,000 gain in a year.

Factors that Contributes to Cost of Building

1) Location

The location of a building inadvently contributes a lot to the high/low cost of building. The Nigerian case for class has a long way of affecting cost of building generally, especially Lagos.
What happens in our urban areas is class segregation, a case whereby you were once poor and fits for the slums and outskirts or other areas that are less prime, and suddenly your economic purse changes, the first thing that happens to an average Nigerian is to relocate. Why? because he believes that is where is class is, the only place fits for his children's education, his business e.t.c
There is the general belief that when you move among the high and mighty yourself, you get more connected to where money is, and the probability of getting contracts is there. But people fail to realise that you can connect to anybody and makes friend more easily in today's ICT age without relocating.
Hence you see when a place is designated as Government Reserved Area, what usually happens is the influx of the rich and this turns even a terrible and non-developed land atimes to prime lands overnight just because of class and oppressive nature of the rich. The building artesans/workers ends up charging more when you are building in those area because of the influx of moneybags. So you will end up spending more money and you won't get the land cheap either.

(2) Type or Nature of Soil

This is where a lot of people gets it wrong and shoots themselves on the foot when planning on building projects. Soil types, strong, mild or very strong generally affects the overall costs of the building. soils are classified under five main headings.
1) Rocks, which include igneous rocks, limestones and sandstones
2) Cohesive soils, such as clays where the constituent particles are closely integrated and stick together.
3) Non-cohesive soils, such as gravels and sands, whose strength is largely dependent on the grading and closeness of the particles.
4) Peat which is decayed vegetable matter of low strength with a high moisture and acidic content.
5) Dump site or made ground which may contain waste of one kind or another and can cause settlement or stability problem.
When building your house the nature of soil on your site will go a long way in affecting your purse. Find out if the land is the good loadbearing type and you will cut cost. People digging your foundation will not need to dig so far, and foundation concrete you will also use will be minimal in comparison to weaker soils. Dump site is the worst place to use because you will need to remove the debris, else your foundaion will be affected and this will cost you more. The stronger your type of soil the lesser the amount of money you will spend.
The topography or level of your land also is very important for you to spend less, in a case where one portion of your site is very low to the other, surely this will take you more money to manage in terms of either block or split-level constructions.
Make sure you get to the exact portion of the land you are being proposed to, because if you by oversight or carelessness buy a damp site, you will need to effectively drain the water to increase the stability of the ground, to avoid surface flooding, and to avoid dampness of the surface of the inner walls and basements, and also to remove humidity in the immediate vicinity of the building.
I have fallen into a mistake like this before so I know what it may cost you if you do same. Firstly, you may have to fill the land and spend more money, though when you were buying the land in question you paid so less and you were given the impression, that you won’t spend more. But you will regret unless you are so rich, I have seen a first hand experience on this, that is why when buying a land is better you buy in the rainning season to give you the opportunity of accessing the site in question. A client once bought a land so cheap but in a very low area, which makes his land a runway for water drainage, you need to witness it when rain is falling yourself, then you might appreciate what I am talking about, strong water currents mind you can overturn a house.
A waterlogged ground will also require reinforcement or iron and concrete which ordinary bungalow in a strong and clear area will not need.

(3) Access to infrastructure

Proximity of land to good infrastructures like road, water, electricity and others goes a long way in affecting the cost of building a house. You may not know, if a tipper can not get access to your site, you will spend 50% of the money you could have used in bringing materials to your site on labour that will carry them. For instance carrying blocks to the site where is actually needed. If water is close that is also an advantage. But this also have is own negative effect on cost of land, but at the long run it is better to buy where all these amenities are in place. Note: consider the cost of running your own pipe, electric poles and grading or clearing the road.

(4) Traffic Access

The human and vehicular access just as explained above can be of great benefit and the influx of people to places like that can also leads to high cost of construction.

(5) Taste, type and Size of Design

High taste demands high cost, your class or status may most likely reflects on the kind of building you want, the type of electrical fittings you want in your house to cater for your utilities, air-conditioner, e.t.c your plumbing fittings to cater for jacuzzi, spas, bathtub, swimming pool e.t.c and other fittings for your comfort and convinience may cause your building cost to rise.
The type of building entails either it is a simple 2,3 or 4 bedroom bungalow or it has to be a duplex/mansionnete. Generally, it costs more to build storey buildings because of the cost of completing concrete floors to just acquiring more lands and building on them for the same numbers of room.
In terms of size the rooms size, the kitchen and other purpose area sizes may even make an ordinary 2 bedroom flat for you to be costlier than another man's 4 bedroom flat. Then talk of additional utility rooms like study, game rooms, prayer room, extra living e.t.c.

(6) The Menace of Omo Onile (Land Owners)

There are cases of “Omo Onile” trying to outstretch the buyer even when you have paid them their illegal entitlements. Some can go as high as making you repurchase your land again altogether. What of the selling of Government acquired Lands to unsuspecting buyers, this is very, very common in Lagos, God saves you if the Government wakes up one day and decides to ask for their land, you will count yourself lucky if they only ask you to pay or repurchase the land. What if they ask you to evacuate altogether and your building completely bulldozed.

(7) Proximity to Institutions

Educational, Health and Religious institutions dots our landscape but what most don’t realize is that they invariably raises the cost of getting lands in their localities, because of influx of people going in and out of these various institutions, commercial activities are always affected positively, thereby bringing business opportunities to those in the locality. An obvious example is Canaanland Ota in Ogun State. You can see the visible increase of properties in this once a forest suddenly turned to haven of investors, and buildings of all manners springing out.

(8) Commercial Viability of the Area in which Building is Constructed

(9)Quality of the professionals and artesans involved

If you use quacks for your building project,yes at presence you will spend less but be aware that before the house is completed or after ,you will spend much more if you refused to use a professional. Talk of the cost of maintaining your house after parking in,the quality of the design that an architect could have easily given to you cheaply ,what of the structural disposition of the building that a civil or structural engineer could have given you for extra peanuts or a quantity surveyor that will cost your building and knows if you are heading for the rock ,or the builder that would have made sure your drawing plans is properly represented or executed and standards are not compromised .Get a professional in the field and let him recommend an artesan –bricklayer carpenter e.t.c to you or you get one by yourself or one that was recommanded for you .you then must make sure you check his old jobs and confirm that it is good’or tell your professional to follow you and access the persons past job, he should be able to point to one.

(10) materials

building materials also contribute immensely to the quality and cost of house immensely ;from what you used in foundation to the materials of roofing ;there is always an array of prices . Even cement bags are of different prices ;What of the blocks ;they also depends on quality; some can sell theirs #10 to#20 difference from others because of the rich cement mixture ratio and the type of sound, while others could just double the price of lower quality ones. For example "BECO BLOCKS" price is usually double the common ones around in Lagos. I guess you know even in roof there are categories also from the ordinary asbestors roof to the modern aluminium the prices always varies.

(11) Quality of finishes

there are different types of finishing which also raises an issue of taste and money to be spent .Even painting atimes can cost more than what is required to buy major materials in another persons building. With the advent of more technological breakthrough in building accessories, where you can now have bullet proof doors and windows with metal detectors, with furniture companies coming out each day with new innovations, there is bound to take into serious considerations the cost of finishes in overall costing of your house.

(12) Aesthetics

The beauty atimes goes along with the complexity of a design, this you may not know affects the cost of building a lot, especially when the walls of building are not aligning and the roof are also complex this may raise the overall cost of the building.

(13) Time or Duration

When a building is taking long time to complete, there is the tendency of spending more at the long run. Consider materials that would have gotten spoilt due to long delay of use on site, what about woods that are left for rain to be beaten, cement that have gone bad, there may be need for some replacements on site anytime you go back to continue after a long lay off.

(14) Inflation

Unstable economic conditions and rise in fuel products also affects building indirectly by multiplier effects. Remember vehicles that uses fuel are needed to bring materials to site.

(15) Security

When the place is close to a police station or is noted to be generally very secured, houses in this area will always go high up.

How to detect a Land under dispute and buying with rest of mind.

Buying a land under dispute is virtually everywhere but most common in crowded urban areas where most land have being sold.
One of the first method is to ask people living around the area about past history of people that have once shown interest on the land or those that have once paid for them, what happened to them when they started work on the land? did they suddenly faced oppositions or everything just collapsed on their head and they have to live the site entirely? these are what people living close to that land can tell you about.
The engagement of competent lawyer to do a thorough check on the documents of the land is essential to avoid falling into such problems. Lawyers do a thorough check on the land and legal history pertaining to the land.
When your agent, is refusing to introduce you to the original owner of the land, this may give a reason to be skeptical. sign of writings on fenced plots warning whoever cares that the land is not for sale or contact so and so atimes may require you to find out more about the land before buying.
Frequent calls on the land by unknown people that are also trying to monitor any unwanted activities on the land when proper documents from the seller can not be gotten or unnecessary delay in getting the papers.
Uncompleted projects on land can also give a sign especially the one that can not go beyond foundation. This is when people usually strike against unsuspecting buyer. To be sure of what you are buying pay an unschedule visit to owner and seller when they are not expecting, this can make you stumble on a clue about the land. READ THIS;
In Ekpoma, Edo State a friend was introduced into buying 2 plots of land, the purported owner's son actually colluded with the mother and other siblings to sell the Aunts' land though this land in question formerly belonged to their father, but he had long bequeathed the land to his sister. So without the knowledge of their father, they arranged for another man from Abia State to pose as their father and they carefully made sure when my friend and his client will be coming to pay the money in their father's house he must have left for the farm. So the elderly man from Abia State was introduced as the father, money exchanged hands that very day, and the eldest of the siblings took the money to finance his relocation abroad. My friend's client have to pay again to the man's sister before he could finally secure the land, the woman came up later to lay claim to the land. Assuming these people did not pay at once but paid an unscheduled visit to meet the same old man in the house, they would have stumbled on the fact, because the Abia man only came once to do the job, while the father was not around.

Where and how to get affordable lands in and around Lagos. and how smart investors are making Quick Profit from it.

Affordable lands are usually in the outskirts and less prime areas. Mostly areas where you have the less affluent, though in these places due to influx of large numbers of people, houses are rising at an astronomical prices and is becoming increasingly difficult controlling their prices.
These are some areas, usually spreading between two or more towns. Ipaja - Ayobo to Ota Ogun State Ipaja - Command to Ota Ogun State Ikorodu to Sagamu stretch Mowe, Ofada, Ibafo stretch to Sagamu Ogun State Agbara - Atan Ota Ogun State.
In all these areas, developments are growing with the speed of light, virtually on daily basis Omo Onile sits under trees and transacts businesses with people that are daily thronging in to look for land.
In ancient world, most towns grew because of the affiliations for religious structures that dots the landscape, people take refuge around these buildings and they serve as spiritual and psychological succour to people around the area. These religious buildings are usually monumental and takes strategic positions in growth of such towns. Now we can see same happenings right now with the advents of Big religious organisations, churches in the outskirts of Lagos, far notable among them are Winners Cannanland in Ota, Ogun State, Redeem Christian Church of God, along Lagos - Ibadan Expressway, Deeper Life, Christ Assembly Campground, NASFAT and many others.
People daily goes to these places to partake in one religious program or the other, hence the traffic to these places are usually very high from Lagos and this helps in commercial growth of these places, we now have building material merchants restaurants, gifts and other sourvenirs being sold in millions, land prices are getting higher, real estate investors in these places are making profits, residence of these places are making money from selling virtually anything because of high volume of traffic.
Again, these areas serve as access routes to other towns, in case of Winners Cannaland Ota the road linking it ends in Idiroko, Ogun State a Nigerian border town leading to Benin republic. The Lagos - Ibadan Expressway is also connecting Sagamu and these routes leads to other parts of the country through roads, Abuja Federal Capital City, the eastern states, the north and the rest of the south.
The socio-economic growth of these towns in no distants future will make more millionaires in few other smart real estate investors, you need to be physically present in these places and witness the growth yourself.
Many property valuers are now giving out such opportunities.