Abuja is the fourth most expensive city in Africa according to a recent survey of hundreds of cities globally. Funny enough, neighbouring Cities like Suleja, Keffi and Madala are far cheaper than Abuja despite their proximity so why is Abuja such an expensive city to live in?

Expensive or not Abuja has a peculiar attribute you’ll find among its residents – disdain for cheap items and love for more expensive stuff. Let’s see good examples;

First case – Rent
Within the city rents are outrageously high but very few occupants who live within high brow districts would opt for cheaper alternatives even on a platter of gold. A comic twist to rent issue is how the law of supply and demand is defied in Abuja for rents in exclusively ‘posh’ districts - less demand should mean falling prices but every year despite few tenants occupying high brow Maitama and Asokoro you still find the rents outrageously fixed at millions of naira and a few high flying folks jumping at them even when cheaper alternatives exist at Lokogoma, Kubwa or Lugbe for just several hundreds of thousands.

Second Case – Shopping Malls
With exception of Shoprite in Apo many well patronized shopping malls are more expensive than your regular supermarket. What’s so special again you may enquire? Seems the same old need to identify with a higher class drives people to places where they’ll likely spend more money than they should but hey! It’s their money isn’t it?

Third Case – Restaurants and Bars
What it costs to down a bottle of beer at a regular bar on the outskirts is N250 for a stout if however you were to have such a beer within the city center especially in an upscale bar you should expect to pay not less than N500 a bottle – same ingredients and quantity. How about restaurants that charge N3000 per plate and yet have more customers than they really need? Is it the food or simply the feel of belonging among elite diners that drives people to these places?

Fourth Case – Automobiles
How much does a second hand car cost in Abuja? Depending on grade and make a good one that wouldn’t give you headaches should start from N500’000 if you reside in Abuja whereas for as little as N400’000 you could get same car in Lagos or Lokoja but that’s not the strange part if you offered same car for sale at two different prices you’d likely find people chasing the more expensive price. Can’t understand why this is but the car dealers have no reason to complain.

Reasons for this trend
There could be several reasons to explain this;

Lots of money to spend in Abuja
There’s so much money in circulation within the city. About 60,000 families in Abuja spend more than N10 million per annum. Fact is the disposable income of many Abuja residents is relatively higher than most parts of the country hence why prices of goods seem high. But the residents may have also formed a stereotype insisting on patronizing merchants with a large overflow of customers even in spite of how much it may cost them.

Regimented City
Abuja is also organized into districts that are set apart by great distance so if you reside in say Kaura district and need to go shopping there might be only two supermarkets around your district and the ones that cost less might be a great distance away hence why people may still choose to purchase at a higher price from local stores.

City of Wannabes
But perhaps chief of all reasons would be that Abuja is a city full of fake high flying folks, people living above their means and trying to belong to a social group that indicates class and prosperity.

If you ever have anything to sell and you realize it isn’t enjoying the kind of patronage it deserves work on the ‘packaging’ which ironically also implies making it more expensive and you’d be surprised at how well received it would be - that is if you target the right market.

Source: http://www.abujafood.info/2013/10/in-abuja-if-price-isnt-high-stuff-aint.html

Fabulousuzo: [size=45]Ok[/size]

[size=45pt]Thank You[/size]

My dear,u're correct.

My DH would prefer to buy clothes for his daughter in Abuja with high costs while the same clothes goes for cheaper amounts in owerri.

He says the cheaper one in owerri is the fake one. In Abuja,the cost of renting a shop is higher than the cost of renting a shop in owerri hence the need for the Abuja people to increase the prices of their goods. The cost of the shop would be included in the cost of the goods they sell.

My cousin came back from the states after ten years and wanted to register companies. He asked me how much it would cost to register a company and i stupidly quoted the normal figures (25,000 naira for 1 million naira share capital which was for all the payments i had to make at CAC )thinking i was doing my cousin a favour.

He contacted some other lawyers he knew who gave him triple the amount.(he paid 150,000 naira each for three companies of 1million naira share capital not express o. It took up to 4 weeks for his documents to be ready!) He left me and went ahead to register the company with those other guys because in his mind,for me to have given him low prices,maybe i didn't know my onions!

its seriously shooting up outrageously. we must shop in the mall. guys, down to salon everyfin is expensive o... i've adjusted anyway, besides i know my priorities... i taya o...

kreami diva: My dear,u're correct.

My DH would prefer to buy clothes for his daughter in Abuja with high costs while the same clothes goes for cheaper amounts in owerri.

He says the cheaper one in owerri is the fake one. In Abuja,the cost of renting a shop is higher than the cost of renting a shop in owerri hence the need for the Abuja people to increase the prices of their goods. The cost of the shop would be included in the cost of the goods they sell.

My cousin came back from the states after ten years and wanted to register companies. He asked me how much it would cost to register a company and i stupidly quoted the normal figures (25,000 naira for 1 million naira share capital which was for all the payments i had to make at CAC )thinking i was doing my cousin a favour.

He contacted some other lawyers he knew who gave him triple the amount.(he paid 150,000 naira each for three companies of 1million naira share capital not express o. It took up to 4 weeks for his documents to be ready!) He left me and went ahead to register the company with those other guys because in his mind,for me to have given him low prices,maybe i didn't know my onions!

Tell me about it!

I once lived in a new built 2-bedroom flat in Suleja and it was awesome at 200k but I had to move when the BH curfew started.

I got a Room n parlour self-contain in Kubwa for an exorbitant 250k and more annoying is the fact that the house looks good on the outside but the interior was poorly built (I guess a bag of cement was used for a whole Room n Parlour).

Most of these landlords in satellite towns like Kubwa (where I reside) charge exorbitant rent for poorly built houses.

And in the last few weeks, FCDA caterpillars are demolishing people's homes and business centres on a daily basis claiming the Landlords built on railway tracks.

Nigerians just have a way of milking fellow Nigerians dry.