23
years ago, my mum was actively involved in the construction of our
current family home in Lagos, Nigeria. She was everywhere with sizeable cash
sums - Bar Beach to haggle with sand tippers, Amu market
for tiles and other building supplies, Coker for
electrical supplies, Owode-Onirin for metalwork, Mile
2 for furniture, and just about anywhere else in Lagos where she could
get what appears a decent bargain. Pregnant with her fifth child, she
still found the energy to hop into tipper trucks with drivers
and oversee every aspect of the building process. Under her
supervision, the beautiful house was completed in just 11 months and we moved
in.
Last
month, I discovered that moving house can be very
stressful. Moving into a new flat is quite stressful. But moving
into a new flat in Lagos is ultra-stressful. After
finding a flat in Gbagada with a landlord who could accept one year’s rent
(but two years agreement and agency fees), the ordeal was only
beginning. The previous tenant had ripped out the electrical wiring, tiles
and burglary proofing before leaving. The kitchen
and bathrooms were completely unusable and the place was filthy. I
needed to replace the burglary proofing, WC and tiles in addition
to rewiring the apartment.
“But
where is the time?” was my concern as I thought about how many productive hours
I would have to waste buying materials and supervising dodgy artisans, as per
my mum's example. This, she assured me, was the only way to ensure that one
does not get cheated. I then met a contractor who demonstrated some ability
without charging me an arm and a leg for it solving a part of that
problem. This still left me with the problem of how to find the time to monitor
the work, withdraw money for materials and get it across to him. His solution
was simple - do it all online.
I saved his
account details on my phone and instructed him to keep me visually updated with
photos of all materials and work via Whatsapp before I would wire any
money to him. My technophobe mum was skeptical about this arrangement but in
the space of a week, my shambolic flat was revamped and
attained cozy status. The contractor did all the running around – Amu market
for tiles, Coker for electrical supplies and plumbing
materials and Owode-Onirin for the new metallic door. All
I had to do was tap a few buttons on my tab screen to send out the money to put
him to work and keep track of the work. I was at my desk at the office the
whole time.
Apparently
the future looks like this, only better.
A
world where transactions are seamless and happening at the speed of thought,
whatever the reason, affording customers like me to have more time for the
things we love.
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