BEYOND AGENCY AND AGREEMENT FEES: A LOOK INTO THE NIGERIA HOUSING SCHEME.

The housing system in Nigeria is a funny one. Believe me, it is. I don’t even know where to start from, but the basic look in is on how screwed the general system is. Things go about the way and manner that pleases them, and they just happen. In most cases, nobody cares. Blame the government is the easy way out. After all, the government has failed the people and may continually do so. Pathetic!

In a way, the Nigerian system promotes corruption and dirty ills. The system makes the people go to the extreme. The system permeates poverty, and unhealthy standards. The system stinks. In fact it reels of filth. What more? The system is you and I, and we are what make the system what it is. Shame!

Housing in Nigeria, unlike more established civilizations is a burden on everyone; not just the house owners, tenants or what not, but on the generality of the economy. House rents elsewhere are paid weekly to meet the wage reception of the tenants. It is a flexible method that allows an individual to live and operate within his means and earnings over a short calculable period of time. For instance, the cheapest house rent paid for a decent one bedroom apartment within Lagos metropolis is about N10,000 per month. Mind you, I used the word “decent”. This sum is summated for a one year period (in some case a year and half or even two years as the case may be) and paid at once. Thus, the landing sum becomes N120,000 for the year. This fee is paid at once before the individual moves into the apartment; adding up other levies such as agency and agreement which hits up to about 30% of the exact rent figure. This is wrong!

Take this for instance, a young man who receives a monthly salary of N50,000 (the most common minimum wage for educated persons) can hardly afford to live in a decent apartment going by what he earns and how the renting system is. This young man, though with limited responsibilities should be able to afford a decent apartment that has with it the basic things needed to enjoy living and working within the metropolis. Were rents to be paid monthly and not once for the year, he would be able to afford 10,000 and wouldn’t finch, since the rest of the salary would be about enough to cater for his needs for the remainder of that month. But again, salary payments are a big issue in Nigeria. Most organizations (government agencies are the worst) do not pay promptly. All still part of what makes the general system a mess; the economy is interwoven, with each face depending on the other to survive on the monetary flux of circulation. When this fails to happen, what happens is a far cry from the original.

No employer or corporate organisation pays their staff their cumulative annual salary at once. Not even the government does that! Why then should rents be paid at once? For thinking out loud, you earn salary monthly, or by your business you count your profits by the month; why should rent payment be made to come once for the year? It doesn’t make sense to me! Why is the housing scheme like that? Come to think of it, during that one year the individual has made payment for; anything can happen! The individual could die, which is worse. He could relocate to another place or city; he may choose not to want to live in the house anymore as a result of one ordeal or the other. Just think of it, anything could happen. And if they do happen, what then happens to the rent money? I believe there should be some sort of government/private regulations or intervention on these things to ensure the whole lot is less cumbersome on the masses, considering that a large percentage of the population are not land owners.

A young employee receiving a N50,000 salary, and whose daily transport and feeding cost is say N600 will have no less than 75% of his take home pay for keeps at the end of the month. From the 75%, he takes out 10% to pay for his rent for the next month; now he has 65% to live with. That percentage takes care of his domestic needs, bills and what more. That is measurable! With a weekly or monthly housing scheme in place, the surge for actualising the minimum wage financial scheme can be well implemented. With the impeccability in both schemes, the economy thrives and citizens can breathe easy while hoping for a better tomorrow. The absence of the point stated herein accrues for why the dependency rate of most graduates on their parents or family is forever on the high in Nigeria. Many youths who are of high maturity age still find themselves living with their parents, uncles or aunties. What they earn can hardly get them out of the ‘comfort zone’, thereby trapping them within the schedule of dependency on parents or family members who by themselves are retirees or have to struggle beyond necessary to keep up with the continuing demands to sustain everyone within their coven. You see, everything within the economy is cyclic. They impact on each other.

Solution? Well, I believe the approach to this bedlam goes beyond just appealing to the government or waiting for them to do something; you and I can make an impact. How can we? We apply reason and understanding to the situation. We get humane and reasonable. By that, we are open to see how selfish and wicked the housing outline has been. The land lords should hold up and set aside greed and understand that, hardship in living has a dwindling role to play in the overall polity and economic growth of the nation. A high cost of living (housing) naturally leads to high cost in nearly all things- from transportation, market pricing, and provision of amenities etc., This is so because people would take it out on others in one way or the other. Economic schemes (in this case, housing) should be there to make life easy for the citizens and not to suffocate them. Beyond government policies and implications, I believe there are associations of similar stakeholders; landlords, agents, government regulators et al. these bodies can come together to foster a healthy compensation for the system. One way out of this is to ascertain the credibility of house tenants before they move into an apartment. As such, before they get an apartment, they can be made to tender their salary vouchers or anything to show (a guarantor or assurance) that they can sustain the house rent on a monthly basis based on what the individual earns.