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Living in Lagos Nigeria

STR Visas and CERPAC Cards

If you’re coming to Nigeria for longer-term for work, you’ll need to enter the country on an STR (subject to regularization) visa. These can only be applied for at a consulate or embassy in your home country. After entering the country on this visa, you’ll be able to get a CERPAC (Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card) which allows you to stay and work.

If you’re coming here to work for an existing company, they’ve likely already received an expat quota for you which is formal approval from the government to hire a foreigner. In this case, getting an STR visa should be fairly straightforward. You’ll apply at the consulate or embassy in your home country and wait 4 - 8 weeks.

However, if you’re coming to start a business on your own, you’ll need to apply for an expat quota yourself through a company that you register. For me, this process took about 1.5 years from start to finish and involved numerous lawyers, delays, and headaches. It’s very possible, especially with the help of local lawyers and friends, but it takes persistence and is not easy.

Bank Accounts

Bank accounts generally require both an NIN (National Identification number) and a BVN (Bank verification number). You can get a NIN after you receive a CERPAC card (although I’ve heard of some people getting an NIN without one). You can get a BVN at just about any physical bank. They will have you fill out some forms, take your fingerprints, and then give you the BVN.

With a bank account you’ll be able to do instant bank transfers and get a debit card, making your stay here much more convenient. Personally, we use Kuda which has it’s issues but is generally fine.

Finding an Apartment

I’d recommend first deciding on a neighborhood to constrain your search. We love living in Lekki Phase 1 because it’s got great street life and is a good balance between affordability and convenience. Many expats get funneled to Banana Island which is really unfortunate – it’s expensive, cloistered, and dealing with security on and off the island is very painful. I would not recommend it. Outside of Lekki Phase 1, VI and Ikoyi are good bets.

We used Property Pro and Nigerian Property Center to look for apartments and then reached out to realtors so they could show us only the places we were interested in. Sort apartments by “most recent” and be ready to pounce on a good place when you see it.

This is more efficient than going to a bunch of random places that a realtor will show you. When looking at listings, pay close attention to the electricity setup. Some estates guarantee 24/7 electricity for a fixed fee. Some guarantee 24/7 electricity but you pay a deposit and then pay as you go (better in my opinion). Others only have electricity for a few hours a day or don’t provide anything and you’ll need to bring your own generator.

Expect to pay 1 year’s rent up-front and both a realtors fee, a legal fee, and a refundable caution fee. You’ll typically send the money to a law firm (hence the legal fee) who brokers the transaction.

You’ll have some leverage to get the landlord to fix things before you pay and move in, but afterwards expect to handle most repairs yourself. Landlords are much more hands-off here than you might be used to. The benefit of this is that there’s much greater leeway to paint and make modifications yourself.

We ended up with a great place by searching online but it took luck. Keep in mind that there’s adverse selection with website listings as most of the good apartments are sourced through friends and are never listed online.

The other thing that helped was booking a short-let for a month when we moved instead of trying to find an apartment beforehand. This gave us time to search and find a place we were really excited about.

Home Furnishings and Decoration

I highly recommend Taeillo for furniture. Their lead times can be long but the quality is great. Otherwise, most furniture here is custom made by artisans and can vary a lot in quality.

LSA company has nice bedding.

If you need any interior design or home remodeling done, I recommend Efe from Arcpenter who I’ve used for multiple projects and is great.

Groceries

Supermart and Pricepally are great for grocery delivery. Supermart has much wider selection, but pricepally has higher quality produce.

For more exotic produce, you can also check out The Grocery Lady who ships weekly from Jos (middle of the country where the climate is temperate and great produce is grown). Make sure to order a lot of mangos during mango season! The opioro and tommy varieties are the best.

In terms of grocery stores there are many. We usually shop at Prince Ebeano in Lekki because it’s close to us, but our favorite supermarket is probably Renee in either Ikoyi or Lekki Phase 1, followed by Hartleys.

Ecommerce

Our favorite ecommerce marketplace is Jiji (the African version of craigslist but better). You just Whatsapp the supplier and inquire about availability / price. They will dispatch a delivery rider to your doorstep, often the same day, and you pay on delivery.

Jumia and Konga are the Amazon equivalents here and are just OK. They have somewhat limited selection and usually take a few days to deliver.

You can also order things from Amazon in the US via services like Heroshe. The product gets shipped to their warehouse in Texas or the UK and will arrive to you in Lagos in 2 - 3 weeks.

Because of instant bank transfers, a lot of commerce happens over social media, particularly for fashion. If you’re struggling to source something, look on instagram!

Other Tips

  • Use your network. Whenever you encounter a problem here, your first instinct should be to ask around and find someone who can help. In the US or Europe, formal systems generally work and can be relied upon for getting things done. In Nigeria, formal systems are often broken so trusted contacts are relied upon for getting things done.
  • Having a local contact to sort out random errands while you are getting your apartment setup is invaluable. If you don’t know anyone, consider finding an assistant via upwork.
  • You'll want a home fiber network. Some common providers on the Island / Lekki areas are FiberOne, ipNX, and Cobranet but just ask around and see what your neighbors use. 5G from MTN is also increasingly common and pretty good. Star Link is an option but will be less reliable during rainy season.
  • Make sure to buy plenty of UPS backups (e.g. Bluegate) for any appliances that should always remain on through power outages (e.g. wifi routers, tv, alarm clocks, etc.)

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Eating Vegetarian in Lagos Nigeria