Why would I say this? Well, if it wasn’t for my mum, eldest brother and uncles, I definitely would have given up by now.

Building in Nigeria is not easy and it certainly isn’t cheap. Buying a safe plot of land and investing smartly isn’t always down to chance either. Like I wrote in one of my earlier posts, anyone in the diaspora that wants to build or even invest in Nigeria MUST go home and see where their money is going regularly enough. But no matter how much you go home, since you don’t live there, you need to have good eyes on the ground looking out for you – God being our main Helper.

One of the first things that stand out to me is what I call the hoarding mentality. A lot of people invest in buying lands in Nigeria, abandon the land essentially for speculative purposes and just wait to sell at huge and sometimes shocking prices. For example, a land that I bought in Lagos about two years ago for N2.75m is now receiving firm bids of N7m.

A consequence of this land banking is that a lot of government schemes i.e. estates where the lands are or were allocated by the govt. go undeveloped. You will get houses here and there, but what you’ll see mostly are bushes everywhere. In Lagos state now, Fashola is revoking ownership titles of people who buy land and do not develop it. An agent friend of mine notified me of this and as you’d expect, I called another person in the know to verify. I hear of people who have already lost a lot of money due to this. This is one of the reason why it is good to have people who are looking out for you! I cannot blame the governor for this policy as there are so many estates with fanciful names such as Rose Garden Estate, Valley View estate etc and when you get there; you are greeted by untarred road, no amenities or drainage infrastructure or clearly obvious plots of land. There aren't any pleasant valleys to view and certainly no roses either.

Nevertheless, the estate agents will show you where a supermarket, a hospital, school and roads are due to be built on that same so called estate. S/he will even show you the allocations for these on the survey map of the estate.

But “when will all these appear?”, you’d ask yourself! Well, most likely when other people start building their houses in the area. In some cases, people do not want to be the first to build or complete their house for security reasons but the moment they see two or three fine houses springing up; they’ll even complete a finer house before you do. In some cases, even when many houses are in these estate and people are living in the area, they will have to get together to do the roads themselves.

An aunty of mine has a house in Magodo. This is a very posh area with some very nice houses behind one of the tightest security. While visiting her a few years ago, her road was really bad. I noticed that there were some guys working to repair the roads only to be told that the residents got together to pay for the job. Please don't whine about this saying "this will never happen in UK/US/Germany" etc. Nigeria still has a lot going for it compared to the West and they are not always things that money can buy! 

I look at the place where we are building our house, even though it is not in Lagos, the same things are witnessed. When we started, very few were building houses. In fact I could count on two hands the number of houses in the estate. But now, in less than two years you can see houses springing up. You can even see electricity poles and cables along the roads. If you look at the clips from my Latest Video to Video 1 on Youtube, you’ll see what I mean.

So what are you to make of all these?

When buying a land on which you want to build your house in Nigeria, try not to be too taken by the lack of houses or infrastructure. Look beyond what you see in front of you. Talk to different agents about the area. Look at the potential of the area to develop balanced against the size of your bank account. You can buy land in Magodo shangisha for N20m or Lekki for N10 etc. Yes you will be among wealthy people but for me, that is a lot of money to spend on a land. Some standard 60 x 120 metre plot of land in Nigeria cost upwards of N50m. That money will build a 10 bedroom mansion in some areas where the same plot of land will cost you N3m.

In any case, you need people in Nigeria who will help you monitor how your money is being spent. And more importantly, even though I trust my mum with my life, for my own sanity and continued motivation, I have to go and see where my money is going. Whenever I go home and see how much has been done, I feel more motivated to continue. It also allows me to talk with the main builders who happen to be my uncles. One is a brilliant carpenter, another an efficient steel worker and the other a straight eyed brick layer. Above all but beneath God, is my mum who watches them all like a hawk. Nothing they do go past her eyes. I can call her now and within minutes she will give me a full account of how the money I sent home has been spent and what has been achieved with it. She knows that I will probe her and so she does not get upset.When she visits us in the UK, she knows how hard I work for the money. In any case, Mama knows that I will always settle her

Also, they all know that I will be coming home in a few months to see what they have been doing. If they get in my bad books, the ‘enjoyment’ they get out of me when I am around and during Christmas time will end. Of course my mum does not fall into this category as she is my mum.

Finally, you can save yourself all or most of these hassles by just going out and buying an already completed house in an area you like if you have the money. I chose not to go down that route because what I wanted was not something that I could afford in one go and taking out a loan or mortgage in Nigeria is an absolute No-No. The interest rate alone and the heavy handed nature of creditors in Nigeria are horrendous. Also, I am a type of person that likes to create things. I get immense satisfaction out of knowing that I designed the house myself and was heavily involved in it from beginning to end.This route will take time and stress but it is hugely more satisfying.