TB Joshua’s neighbours convert homes to hotels

Many residential buildings in Ikotun-Egbe on the outskirts of Lagos have been converted to hotels and inns because of the presence of the Synagogue of all Nations Church, writes ’NONYE BEN-NWANKWO

Mr. Joseph Sunday, who resides at Egbe in Ikotun Egbe, Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos, last Saturday looked every inch a worried man. The expression on his face showed a man whose inner recesses are preoccupied with worries.


Indeed, the 40-year-old father of five, who our correspondent saw at a property agent’s shop, is having an accommodation problem. His landlord at Bolungberu Street on the Isolo-Ikotun Road, has given him a notice to vacate his house in the next six months. So, Sunday’s anxiety was not only on how to secure another accommodation for his family, but also how to raise the needed money to do so. He also has to meet his landlord’s deadline if his belongings would not be thrown out of the compound.

Securing and paying for accommodation in Lagos is no child’s play. Besides, the huge two or three years’ rent one has to pay to get a fairly good place, other sundry financial bills like the agreement and agent’s fees, among others, are part of the burden one has to bear.

 The legwork, as it were, is another task any potential accommodation seeker has to face. Indeed, anybody looking for an accommodation has to register with agents, which, of course, requires monetary involvement (perhaps between N2,000 and N5,000) in as many shops as possible, although that does not suggest an automatic access to the apartment of one’s choice.

These and many other psychological issues were occupying Sunday���s mind last Saturday.

Like Sunday, many other residents of Egbe and its environs are facing a similar experience. Small-scale business owners too are not left out of what a resident of the area described as the “mad rush for the occupation” of the territory.

Property owners in the area are no longer interested in giving out their apartments to families for a long period of years. In the new thinking, there is now a fresher approach to recouping the money they have spent on the buildings.

Not only that, many house owners prefer to relocate to other parts of the city and let out their houses as chalets.

One of them, Mr. Gabriel Omatade, who relocated to Gemade Estate in Egbeda, said he had two houses now turned to hotels in the area.

According to him, it makes more economic sense for him to live in a rented apartment elsewhere because he makes more money from the houses converted to hotels.

Another house owner who craved anonymity, gave the same reason for moving out of the area.

He said he makes more than double the money he could have made if his house had been solely occupied by tenants.

“The easiest way to make more money from your apartment is to turn them to chalets. There are enough visitors here everday to stay in them,” he added.

Little wonder, the Egbe-Ikotun area of Lagos, the once residential area, is of late beginning to attract a lot of attention and increasingly becoming a business hub, courtesy of the presence of Synagogue Church of All Nations.

Following the large number of people coming to worship or seek one religious favour or another in the church, the tempo and standard of life in the area have moved upward.

 The many hotels, lodgings, business shops and transport companies springing up around the locality are pointers to the pace of development in the area.

In fact, saying that there is no street in that neighbourhood without at least three hotels or lodgings would not be far from the truth.

The area has also become a hotbed of activities for some young employment seekers recruited to solicit customers and clients for the growing business outfits in the vicinity. These young individuals, our correspondent gathered, are paid commissions for every new client they attract to a hotel or any of the hurriedly organised lodging places.

In fact, just as soon as our correspondent got to Segun Irefin Street, which is just adjacent to the church, a commercial motorcycle operator quickly offered to take her to where she could get a ‘decent’ accommodation.

The okada rider, who later gave his name as Simon, informed our correspondent that he is usually and adequately compensated by the hotel management depending on the number of guests he brings in.

“Each time I take a guest to any of the hotels, I write my name and the number of guests I bring. At the end of the day or month, I am compensated. Some hotels can give me a bag of rice at the end of the year. Others can give me commission based on what the guests pay,” he said.

Simon, who said he had been doing the business for more than three years, noted that he had even moved up to buy a car, which he also uses for the business.

“It depends on the guests. Some of them, I use my car to take them to the airport or the park. I have so many customers. All they need to do is to call me when they are coming to the church and I will go and pick them up. We are so many in the business. You can see all the young guys hanging around here, we are all agents and this is what we do. The more guests you are able to take to any hotel or lodging, the more you are compensated,” he said.

Indeed, the ‘agents’ are not just young boys and okada riders, female recharge card sellers readily take guests where they could pay as low as N500 a night.

On Unity Street, off Liasu Road, is a hotel where each room can have as many as 12 double-bunk beds.