21st June, 2012
At least 700 thousand houses will be renumbered in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, in a vast exercise meant to create a uniform and orderly house numbering system in Nigeria’s most populous state, the government said on Tuesday.
“We are trying to create a uniform and house numbering system which will elevate the status of our state in the global market place,” said Mr. George Kayode Noah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, LASAA, the agency that will carry out the exercise.
The House Numbering System, HNS, is paid for by the Lagos State Government and will be carried out by at least 400 staff, Noah said at a press briefing yesterday in Lagos.
The plaque, a reflective engineering sheet, measuring 254 x 254mm, with 3mm thickness, will be installed with anodised bolts, the government said.
“The house number plaque will have the street name and the number for each house on the named street as well as the crest of the Lagos State Government and the inscription: Property of Lagos State Government,” Noah said.
LASAA boss disclosed that the plaques, to be installed first in Surulere Local Government Area, will be clearly visible from the road or street and will not be lower than four feet or higher than six feet from the ground level.
The purpose, according to the government, is to put an end to confusion and make it easier to locate all houses in Lagos.
The benefits, Noah said, include the provision of a convenient, accurate and systematic means of property identification as well as to facilitate emergency response in the state.
Noah added that the exercise is to establish a property identification that will serve as mail delivery addresses and generate data for government for proper planning.
He said that although there are about 18 million people in Lagos, there are only about 700,000 houses in the state.
“We thought there were about four to five million houses in the state, but we confirmed that there are only just about 700,000 houses. I was also surprised,” Noah said, adding that all property owners will have to remove all old numbers, inscriptions or plaques within a period of 365 days after the installation of a new plaque.
Reacting to the house numbering exercise, Mr. Kola Oni, 64, a resident in Ketu area of Lagos, said that the exercise is commendable but government’s claims that there are only 700 thousand houses in Lagos may not be correct.
—Simon Ateba