To the next Governor of Lagos State @jidesanwoolu @drobafemihamzat @GRVlagos @funsodoherty @_yemia @PGeeman @pastorpoju @TaibatLawanson @AfricanCities_ @hbsNigeria @honmojimeranda Lagos Has ₦80 Billion Hiding in Plain Sight. It's Time to Spend It on Homes. Lagos State generated about ₦80 billion in building approval fees in 2025, a figure recently confirmed by the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development. The fees are already progressive by design: a developer breaking ground in Ikoyi pays far more than one building in Ikorodu. The redistributive logic is built in. It just needs to be put to work. Lagos faces a housing deficit estimated at over 3 million units, with roughly 70% of residents in informal settlements or substandard housing. Meanwhile, luxury towers keep rising in Eko Atlantic, Banana Island, and Lekki Phase 1, where single apartments routinely sell for ₦500 million to ₦2 billion. The fix is straightforward. Ring-fence 20–30% of annual building approval revenue ₦16 to ₦24 billion, into a dedicated Inclusionary Housing Cross-Funding Pool. Use it to subsidise social rental units within new developments, fund land-charge waivers and fast-track approvals for compliant builders, and finance the shared infrastructure drainage, roads, schools that turns mixed-income developments into actual communities. Luxury and mid-tier builders effectively cross-subsidise the affordable stock. Then go further. A modest 1–2% annual tax on residential properties valued above ₦500 million would touch only the ultra-wealthy and could conservatively raise another ₦15–30 billion a year. For context, Lagos is home to an estimated 9,800 dollar millionaires the largest concentration on the continent and prime property in Ikoyi and Banana Island trades in dollars per square metre, comparable to mid-tier European capitals. A property tax at this level is unremarkable globally; in Lagos, it would be transformative. Lock the proceeds into the same housing fund by statute, with no discretionary raids permitted. The arithmetic is simple. Combined, these streams could generate ₦30–50 billion every year for social housing enough to deliver tens of thousands of units over a single political cycle. The ultra-wealthy pay modestly more on assets appreciating largely because of public infrastructure they didn't fund. Working Lagosians get homes closer to where they work. Slums shrink. Commutes shorten. Productivity rises. This is the basic logic of a functioning city: those who benefit most from Lagos pay proportionally to sustain it. The revenue exists. The crisis is undeniable. What remains is the decision to act. Lagos cannot keep approving luxury towers while its workforce sleeps two hours away. The ₦80 billion is already on the table. Use it.