There’s a new digital platform simplifying land acquisition for Nigerians, regardless of their revenue band. 

In line with the Nigerian property centre, the typical price of land in Lagos, Nigeria is ₦8 million ($18,906.85) for a plot of land. Land costs may go as excessive as ₦1 billion ($2,364,289.70) and as low-cost as ₦500,000 ($1,182.14). In a rustic the place the minimal wage is ₦30,000 ($70.90), with 95.1 million of its over 217 million inhabitants projected to stay in poverty by the tip of 2022, and no correct mortgage facility, shopping for a plot of land for the aforementioned quantities is not possible for most individuals. 

There are a pair causes most Nigerians don’t personal land or properties. One, after all, is the dearth of the heavy funds usually required to accumulate such properties. And for many who have the cash, the method of acquisition is cumbersome. Regulatory laxity retains exposing patrons to exploitation and quite a few country-wide land dispute circumstances.  

Globally, the dispute over land possession is an enormous deal. It has traditionally led to the destruction of complete households, races, cities, and cities. Right now, land possession disputes are shortly shifting from a fuss often emanating from inheritance points to enterprise improprieties. In Nigeria, actual property corporations and people are the brand new lamp bearers of land disputes; they now, deliberately, promote the identical piece of land to a number of folks, usually subjecting patrons to years of authorized back-and-forth. 

Even when you escape falling into the arms of fraudsters  and do get your land, you almost certainly won’t escape locals who declare to be “youngsters of the land—omo-onile”  harassing to pay them some cash earlier than you’ll be able to construct on the land. A convention, they are saying it’s.

This custom is what has led two childhood associates, Olamilekan Adeniji and Stephen Nwachuckwu, to start out Buildbay and eradicate frictions from land acquisition journeys. Buildbay was conceptualised after Nwachukwu’s mom misplaced the land she newly purchased as a result of the sellers weren’t the official homeowners of the land. Nevertheless it wasn’t till 2020 that the duo, who’re accountant and entrepreneur, respectively, resolved to leverage expertise to simplify the method of official land acquisition and make it accessible to all people throughout completely different revenue bands.

“Buying land in Nigeria is just not simple: there’s simply a lot obstacle from doubtful sellers to omo-onile and copious acquisition levies,” Adeniji informed TechCabal over a name. “We simply wanted to take away all of those impediments to make the method simple for everybody.”

In actuality, the omo-onile are largely immutable and might’t be utterly taken out of the image. Totally different state governments have enacted a number of tenant sanctions to maintain them away from folks’s land however none has been efficient. For instance, Lagos state enacted a law on land grabbing in 2016 but it’s been enterprise as regular for the land grabbers since then. If governments have failed, how then can a personal agency clear up this downside? Adeniji and Nwachukwu discovered an answer: they’d purchase a number of lands throughout the nation and repay the omo-onile from every location as soon as and for all. That approach, folks wouldn’t must expertise them when claiming their lands. 

However the bottleneck with this resolution is that it’s costly. Land, by itself, is already on the excessive aspect, particularly in Lagos the place they’ve determined to start out, with out including omo-onile settlements. Adeniji mentioned they’d no money reserve nor enterprise backing to interact in such a heavy enterprise, in order that they engaged the Oxford Worldwide Group, a longtime agency working in the actual property sector, for partnership. The 2 corporations joined forces to type OxfordBuildbay, then went on to accumulate lands and construct their expertise. 

Buying land in bulk, then reselling it in plots isn’t a brand new enterprise mannequin. It’s, in truth, what most actual property corporations already do. What’s novel, nonetheless, is what OxfordBuildBay did subsequent. 

OxfordBuildbay chopped the costs down into ridiculous bits and allowed folks to pay day by day, weekly, and month-to-month. The costs fluctuate from as little as ₦250 to ₦500,000. Due to its enterprise mannequin and fee construction which has similarities to that of conventional thrift assortment, the corporate started to onboard and leverage casual merchants’ communities and occupational golf equipment (like vogue designers, barbers and many others.) to disseminate its message offline. 

“We’d leverage the actual property agent community to onboard folks from casual quarters who want the benefit and affordability we provide, just like the market, neighbourhoods, cooperative with giant member headcounts, and even colleges,” Nwachukwu informed TechCabal. “After onboarding them, the agent would obtain their fee like a thrift assortment. They’re given playing cards to tick each time they make fee. This was simple for them to handle and monitor as a result of they had been used to this mannequin earlier than us.” 

The corporate appeared to have reached the mass market, and after some time, when their offline effort grew to become profitable, they started to onboard their customers onto the digital platform. With the assistance of a bot, those that couldn’t navigate the web site had been redirected to WhatsApp for steering. 

OxfordBuildbay now has each an Android and iOS app. On the app, there’s a pockets facility for customers to retailer worth. They’ve built-in Paystack to simply accept funds, which may be automated at any time the consumer chooses. 

On the app is an array of lands to pick out from after signing up. There may be additionally an funding part, the place customers could make an funding in a few of the money movement companies, like dredging, that Oxford runs. 

It’s been two years of operation, and in accordance with Adeniji, the platform has over 25,000 customers, translating to over 25,000 slots of land. The platform sells lands per slot, and a slot is 250 sq. meters or, as popularly referred to as, half-a-plot. 

Nwachukwu insisted that the corporate doesn’t have any hidden prices. “We don’t cost any allocation or documentation price, and our customers are allowed to automate their fee in order that company price, zero documentation price and allocation may be between the sixth and twelfth months whereas the fee is ongoing,” he mentioned. Nwachukwu, who at the moment doubles as the corporate’s head of progress and chief monetary officer,  claimed  OxfordBuildbay has primarily saved Nigerians near ₦3 billion on the additional price of omo-onile and authorized errands incurred.

Whereas OxfordBuildbay might enchantment extra to low-income earners, Nwachukwu mentioned financially buoyant people are additionally utilizing their platform. OxfordBuildbay has additionally created a touchdown pad for customers who’re lagging in fee: their fee is restructured both by lowering the quantity paid at an interval or extending the interval at which the cash is being paid. Nonetheless, in circumstances of acts of God, like illness, the corporate has partnered with a medical health insurance firm to supply protection to its customers. 

“That is to point out that we care concerning the folks,” Nwachukwu mentioned. “We’re optimising for the democratising of residence possession in Nigeria, and good well being is a recipe for making that occur.”