As Nigeria’s housing deficit increases, compounding the poor state of affordable housing in the country, it also opens opportunities for a real estate boom. As with every developing nation, the common goal among Nigerians is to own a house and totally escape the hassles that stem from rising cost of accommodation.

While the situation is peculiar in many states of the nation, the individual push to own a house is higher in Lagos than any other state in Nigeria. The reason can be traced to its bloated population and limited land size ­­­ – Lagos is the smallest state in Nigeria by land size. Nigeria has more than 17 million housing deficit, of which Lagos has the lion share.

Against this backdrop, the individual push for house ownership in Lagos has leaped significantly since the last ten years. But as people strive to build or buy their own houses, they’re increasingly being confronted with fraudulent property vendors.

Last year, a group of buyers accused a real estate company, Brickwall Global Investment Ltd, of defrauding them in the guise of selling plots of land. It was a notorious scandal that splashed a dent on the young Nigeria’s real estate sector that has provided property buyers, a safer way of property acquisition devoid of scam.

Though Brickwall Global Investment Ltd denied any wrongdoing, evidence presented by the buyers proved that the company has fallen short in its obligation, prompting the buyers to take the matter to court.

Earlier this month, a Federal High court sitting in Lagos ordered the wound up of Brickwall Global Investments Ltd.

Justice Olayinka Faji of the Federal High in Lagos on June 17 granted the winding-up petition filed against Brickwall by the five aggrieved customers (who have now been joined by three others) to be advertised.

The judge also ordered that the company be restrained from dissipating its accounts until the determination of the Petition which has now been adjourned to October,12.

The court further restrained the directors, staffer, management, employees, officers, agents, privies, servants, or any persons from alienating, disposing of, dealing tampering, or interfering with the assets and properties of the Brickwall Global Investment Limited including tangible and intangible assets, movable and immovable assets.

The court also directed that any creditor of the company desirous of supporting or opposing the winding up of the company to appear at the time of hearing of the matter either in person or by their counsel.

The aggrieved customers had last year, petitioned the Federal High Court in Lagos to wind up the business so as to liquidate the company’s assets and retrieve over N5.7million spent on purchasing pieces of land in the company’s Mayflower Estate, at Ikorodu.

The petitioners had said that five years after they paid for the company’s advertised new development, Brickwall had without cause or justification refused to give the petitioners possession of the respective parcel of land purchased or returned their money.

The petitioners include Lawrence and Saffron Imolode, Ebuka Ezeocha, Zephaniah Nwokeji, and Chuka Nwadialo. But apart from them, investigations show that over a dozen other people have also been sold excuses rather than real estate they paid for in what appeared to them like an elaborate scam.

The Court agreed with the petitioners that the company is insolvent and is unable to meet up its obligations with its creditors and found that the Respondent failed to demonstrate that it is able to meet up its obligations as provided in the Company and Allied Matters Act.

Emmanuel Ijakpa, chief operating officer of Brickwall Global Investments had told BusinessDay that the delay in allocating the land to the buyers was due to a massive gully, almost the size of an acre, on the property which resulted in losses and needed resolution with the family that sold the land. The customers say this is not true,

The land in dispute is over 3,200 square meters lying in Mowo Nla village, Ikorodu, in Ikorodu local government area of Lagos state which belonged to the Ifegbuwa Chieftaincy Family.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Estate Regulatory Authority has directed the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos State to investigate the complicity or otherwise of the company, its directors, and senior officials on the allegation of using the company to defraud residents after several complaints to the Lagos State Government through their office.

However, findings show that the police is yet to fully implement this directive, a development that has caused grief to no end to the victims.

Brickwall Investments Ltd, owned by one Uche Ahubelem, a real estate practitioner and motivational speaker, continues to sell and advertise new developments in other parts of Lagos even as the court case progressed.

The intervention of the Lagos State Estate Regulatory Authority is to protect the sector from embarrassment and repercussions of fraud. The Nigeria’ real estate sector grew 1.8% in the first quarter, 2021, stymied by covid-19 pandemic strains. As forecasts predict a bright outlook for the sector, experts are concerned that the news of fraud by players in the real estate sector may mar its growth.

Facebook closed above $1 trillion in market capitalization for the first time on Monday, adding to the number of tech companies breaking thresholds despite the pandemic.

The social media giant had had to contend with lingering antitrust cases, compounded by Apple’s new privacy policy that poses a great threat to its ad revenue. However, it has recorded defiant numbers that put it in the zone of trillion dollars US tech companies.

Facebook has thus become the fifth U.S. company to hit the milestone, joining Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google-parent company Alphabet. Per CNBC, the company’s shares closed up 4.2% at $355.64 after a favorable legal ruling that dismissed an antitrust complaint brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of state attorneys general. The move pushed Facebook shares up nearly 5%.

Facebook derives nearly all of its revenue from personalized advertisements that are shown to users of the Facebook and Instagram social networks. The company also has a burgeoning hardware business where it is building products like the Portal video-calling device, Oculus virtual-reality headsets and smart glasses, which are set to be released sometime in 2021.

Facebook held its initial public offering in May 2012, debuting with a market cap of $104 billion.

The company suffered a colossal 19% drop in 2018 after posting disappointing revenue and user figures for the second quarter of that year. That drop came amid a number of scandals that year, including data leaks, fake news and, most notably, the Cambridge Analytica scandal — in which a data firm improperly accessed the data of 87 million Facebook users and used it to target ads for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Despite the scandals, Facebook was able to bounce back and has continued to grow its user base and steadily increase its average revenue per user. The stock price is now up more than 90% since July 27, 2018.

The company is still working on so many ideas across its platforms, and they’re believed to have the potential to accelerate further growth. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week the launch of new commerce features to support businesses and make shopping easier. They include Shops on WhatsApp and Marketplace, Instagram Visual Search and Shops Ads; Instagram Visual Search that helps buyers discover products based on images.

Cowen analysts had predicted in August, when its stock rose to $280.82, that the company would be the next to cross the $1 trillion milestone, given how its stocks were moving despite the pandemic.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the country’s watchdog for financial activities, had on Saturday, restricted crypto exchange, Binance Markets Limited, from carrying out regulated services in Britain without express approval.

Binance Markets Limited is part of the wider Binance Group, the world largest cryptocurrency exchange and the issuer of (BNB) Binance coin. Its platform, Binance.com is an online centralized exchange that offers users a range of financial products and services, including purchasing and trading a wide range of digital currencies, as well as digital wallets, futures, securities, savings accounts and even lending.

Binance does not have a single location for its headquarters, but it allows users to trade crypto derivatives – including futures and options which require approval.

The UK regulator said “Binance Markets Limited is not currently permitted to undertake any regulated activities without the prior written consent of the FCA,” and It has until Wednesday to comply with the ruling. It also warned the UK division to stop any form of advertising by 30 June, after adivising the public to “be wary of adverts online and on social media promising high returns on investments in cryptoasset or cryptoasset-related products.”

“While we don’t regulate cryptoassets like Bitcoin or Ether, we do regulate certain cryptoasset derivatives (such as futures contracts, contracts for difference and options), as well as those cryptoassets we would consider ”securities,'” the FCA statement said. “A firm must be authorized by us to advertise or sell these products in the UK.”

But Binance has an exchange registered in the Cayman Island, which means the decision will not stop UK crypto traders from using Binance exchange.

However, the FCA decision has added to the growing push back against crypto exchanges by governments globally, signaling intent by the UK government to crackdown on crypto activities sooner or later.

In April, British authorities announced that they are exploring the possibility of creating a new digital currency that Treasury chief Rishi Sunak touted as “Britcoin.” It is part of the global trend of central banks creating digital currencies to counter the influence of cryptocurrencies and protect their traditional financial system.

Following that announcement, Britain is making for the first time, a crypto regulatory move. BBC’s tech analyst Rory Cellan-Jones said “the FCA is sending a strong signal that it is worried about the dangers of investing in cryptocurrencies in general,” and the decision means the government is becoming overly concerned about their potential use as a cover for illicit activity – and it wants consumers to be very careful indeed.

The FCA also forbids Binance from setting up an exchange in the UK and warns consumers to check and withdraw from any exchange that is not registered in the UK. It also ordered the exchange to keep record of UK customers and be ready to hand them over to the authorities upon request.

China followed a similar pattern of warning consumers about the potential dangers of using cryptocurrencies while working on e-yuan, its digital currency, before it cracked down on cryptocurrencies.

While there have been similar situations in other countries like Japan, where the authorities have warned Binance about operating in the country without authorization, and Canada, where the platform was forced to leave Ontario in December, due to regulatory dispute, there is growing speculation that FCA’s move has more than exchange regulatory intent.