By Alao Sunday Adamadamosi ,arpa
For decades, poverty has been portrayed as a harsh taskmaster with many faces—unemployment, poor healthcare, and illiteracy. However, in Lokoja, the confluence town and capital of Kogi State, poverty has found an unlikely ally: the skyrocketing cost of renting a decent apartment.
While the federal government and international organisations grapple with multidimensional poverty indices, a silent economic calamity is unfolding in Lokoja. The high cost of accommodation is no longer just a nuisance; it has become a direct, helping hand to poverty, dragging thousands of families deeper into the abyss of financial despair.
Lokoja is a city of strategic importance—a historical melting pot and an administrative hub. Yet, paradoxically, while salaries have stagnated and businesses have crumbled under the weight of national inflation, house rents in areas like Felele, Ganaja Junction, Gadumo, and Crusher have gone on a rampage.
Today, it is nearly impossible to find a self-contained one-bedroom apartment in a decent part of the metropolis for less than N200,000 to N250,000 per annum. For a two-bedroom flat, the asking price often starts at N350,000 and skyrockets to over N500,000 in highbrow areas. To the uninitiated in Lagos or Abuja, these figures might seem modest. But in Lokoja, where the minimum wage worker takes home barely N72,500 monthly, these figures are the arithmetic of hunger.
How does high rent fuel poverty? The mechanism is brutal but simple. When a civil servant earning N72,500 monthly is forced to pay N200,000 for rent, they are not simply buying shelter; they are mortgaging their existence.
Firstly, it forces the “Advance Payment Trap.” Landlords in Lokoja, mirroring their counterparts in megacities, demand a year’s rent upfront plus a staggering agency fee (often 10%) and a refundable caution fee. For a N200,000 apartment, the tenant needs roughly N250,000 to key in. For a worker earning N72,500, that is just a little above four months of their gross salary. Where does the rest come from? They borrow, sell off their petty trade capital, or withdraw children from school. Thus, the rent cycle becomes a poverty cycle.
Secondly, it drives “Nutritional Collapse.” In a rational world, a family’s budget prioritises food, health, and savings. But in Lokoja today, rent has become the vampire. Once the landlord takes the lion’s share, what is left for a family of four? Stale bread, unripe plantains, okpa and hope. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that household spending on housing above 30% of income leads to severe malnutrition. In Lokoja, many families spend 60-70% of their income on rent. This is not just poverty; it is a public health crisis.
Thirdly, it destroys Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Lokoja’s economy is driven by petty traders—women selling yam flour (elubo), groundnuts, akpu, roasted corn and second-hand clothes. The high cost of housing forces these traders to live in unserviced, flood-prone slums while using their shop rent to subsidise their residential rent. Eventually, the business capital dries up. Without business, there is no employment. Without employment, crime festers.
The irony is that Lokoja is not landlocked by scarcity; it is surrounded by vast expanses of undeveloped land. So, why is rent so high? The answer is threefold: greed, poor urban planning, and the “Abuja effect.”
The presence of higher institutions in Lokoja (Federal University Lokoja) and polytechnics (Kogi State Poly) has created a hostage market. Landlords know that students and desperate workers have no choice but to pay. Furthermore, property owners have adopted the “Lagos model” of rent extraction without the corresponding Lagos wages. There is no rent control board in Kogi State with any meaningful enforcement power.
If the government of His Excellency, Governor Usman Ododo, is serious about lifting Kogites out of poverty, they must look beyond fertiliser subsidies and food palliatives. The roof over a citizen’s head is the foundation of economic stability.
Here are practical recommendations:
1. Enact and Enforce a Rent Control Law: Kogi State must cap rent advances at three to six months, abolishing the draconian one-year upfront payment. This will immediately put cash back into the pockets of workers.
2. Unlock the Land Registry: The state government owns vast lands. It must aggressively develop social housing estates in areas like Zone 8 and Felele, offering rent-to-own schemes for civil servants.
3. Punish Exploitative Agents: The epidemic of 10% agency fees on a one-year rent is pure rent-seeking. The state should regulate estate surveying firms to charge only for services rendered.
In conclusion, Lokoja is a beautiful city with a rich heritage. But it is currently a city where the roof leaks, not because of rain, but because of exploitation. We must stop treating high rent as a mere market force. It is a structural driver of poverty. Until the people of Lokoja can sleep affordably, they will continue to wake up hungry.
The fight against poverty must begin at the front door of every family home. And right now, that door is too expensive to open.
Alao Adamadamosi Sunday arpa write from Lokoja.
