LASRERA: AGENCY HAS GOOD INTENTIONS BUT ‘I AM NOT PARTICULARLY EXCITED’ – CHARLES AJIBOYE; URGES GOV. SANWO-OLU TO ADDRESS BASIC REAL ESTATE ISSUES
By Oki Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
Principal Partner, Penthouse Law, Barr. Charles Ajiboye
The Principal Partner at Penthouse Law, Barr. Charles Ajiboye has faulted the Lagos State Government for not addressing basic concerns of industry players in the Nigerian real estate sector. He hinted that if many of these issues are addressed, the creation of Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) may not be necessary as older agencies would have done the job.
He also alleged that the foundation of fraudulent systems in the industry may not be far from government’s doorstep.
The fiery lawyer made this observation in a brief interview he granted Trek Africa Newspaper during a recent Stakeholders Forum organized by Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) Real Estate in conjunction with the Construction Projects and Infrastructure Committee of the Section on Business Law, Nigerian Bar Association (CPIC, NBA-SBL).
Trek Africa: What is your general feeling about the conference?
Charles Ajiboye: It is a good idea but I think it is not deep enough, it can be richer, it can be better. I do not like to sound like a critic of government but then I am not one that is easily moved by colourful activities and sweet speeches. The truth about the matter of LASRERA is that it is just an additional agency that is set to make real estate more brokered when we already have agencies that are dead, not functional, and used to compensate political loyalists. I am not particularly excited. I see the good intentions but I feel the good intentions can be better achieved by making dead or dying or ailing agencies more functional and more opreartional.
Principal Partner, Penthouse Law, Barr. Charles Ajiboye
Trek Africa: Why do you sound so critical of government’s move?
Charles Ajiboye: If something as basic as land search/search for title documents is still a big deal since they went electronic under Fashola, why do we talk about defrauding? We still cannot log online and search like we do anywhere in the world.
The place where fraud starts is when people want to buy and it is difficult to search or you find conflicting records.
We need things that are more practical, you cannot search, you cannot perfect documents, what is there in Governor’s Consent? It has been drafted already, just for Governor to consent and you wait 2, 3 years moving file to file and we are talking about regulations.
Trek Africa: What is your take on the rental scheme introduced by Gov. Sanwo-olu?
Charles Ajiboye: The scheme is good and it was clarified that it is not a law. The misinformation before was that it was going to be a law so that people will be compelled. I think they now need to go out there to tell people that it is not a law but an option. It is fantastic because rent can be killing.
I do hope we can sustain the scheme because we don’t have sufficient data so that the company putting in their money will be able to retrieve their funds. If they loan out and people are not able to pay back, how do they recover, people are fired everyday. I hope the people behind it will factor in all these issues.
Trek Africa: Homelessness is a major issue in Lagos now, how do we address this?
Charles Ajiboye: Homelessness doesn’t happen overnight. Many factors are involved. Firstly our Forex rate is bad. The naira to any other currency is poor. We are also a consuming nation. We consume what we do not make. It is not a problem of Lagos State, it is a national problem.
Land is expensive, building materials are expensive, even the housing units built by government is N40million, N80 million, who is going to pay for them when the minimum wage is N30,000. How can you own a property of N70 million?
Trek Africa: What would you rather that the government do?
Charles Ajiboye: That is why every government must embrace public-priavete partnership. If government goes to Epe, give land to developers to build 60,000 units, gives them Governor’s consent upfront with the tidying of agreement that if you don’t finish this project in 5 years, we will take it back. Only serious people will come in, let banks fund the developers. If you do something like that and you market it, this will be more practical.
Let them build 1-bedroom apartment, 2-bedroom apartments and take them to 4 – 6 storeys. You will see a lot of people move to these areas to open up these areas.
But no, there is not much decisive approach to our governance. I don’t know why we always take things from the top instead of from bottom. The SA to the Governor said they have been able to build 3000 housing units. By the end of their administration, they would have been able to build 5000. She also restated that we have about 25 million people in Lagos and they have built 5000 housing units, isn’t it laughable?
