Barely two years after the Lagos authorities mooted the monthly rent policy; the state government has reassured residents that the scheme is still on course and announced plans to commence the scheme in 2025.

There were concerns by stakeholders, as it appears that the scheme announced over two years ago to ease the burden of yearly rent payment in the state might have been abandoned. The government had disclosed in 2021 that it will be implementing a monthly rent scheme in the state beginning from January 2022, but the scheme has not been implemented.

Under the monthly rent scheme pioneered by immediate past Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Housing, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, the government said it set aside N5 billion for the programme. The policy generated controversies among landlords and potential investors in the Lagos housing market, who also awaited the implementation.

About 500,000 people migrate to Lagos yearly, despite its small land mass and an expanding population estimated at 20 million, hence a huge deficit in housing supply. Government efforts at mitigating the challenge also remain a drop in the ocean. Renting an apartment has been a major issue for many Lagosians as over 70 per cent of the population spends more than 50 per cent of their income on housing.

The Nigerian laws on tenancy already recognise monthly tenancy. For instance, section 13 (1) to (6) of the Tenancy Law of Lagos, 2011 refers to yearly tenancy, half-yearly tenancy, quarterly tenancy and monthly tenancy. But observers are of the view that making a law to enforce a particular type of tenancy is unnecessary; rather, they said the laws should remain flexible to enable people to decide for themselves the best options.

The Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Housing, Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, told The Guardian that the scheme has not been abandoned. She said: “Anywhere in the world, rent is paid monthly. We are looking forward and hoping that before the end of the year or early next year we will implement that policy.

She maintained that the rent will be charged according to individual earnings, adding that the governments will test-run the policy within the public sector. “Once we see that the policy works in the public sector, we can then push it to the private sector. The N5 billion for the take-off of the policy is still set aside, nothing has happened to it. The fact that it is slow to take off shows that the government is trying to perfect the plan. The then administration was about coming to an end when it was introduced.

“Now we have a new administration, and the government wants the scheme to really fly. Hopefully, it will come into effect by the end of this year or early 2025. No one is forcing the monthly rent on anybody; you can do one year or one month. The reason we are opting for the policy is to make life easier for the people,” Odunuga-Bakare said.

She further said there is a virile mortgage system in Lagos that works perfectly, which will also aid the scheme. “If you want to buy some of our homes through the Ministry of Housing, you either buy out-rightly or obtain mortgage. The percentage is charged according to your earnings. So, if it can work for a rent-to-own scheme, it can also work for monthly rental too.”

“The one-year rent tenancy law in Lagos state still stands but some areas are exempted. This includes Victoria Island, Ikoyi and industrial areas. It is the governor’s prerogative to determine how they can charge in those areas. Apart from those areas, no one is allowed to charge more than one-year rent in the state,” Odunuga-Bakare.