The Lagos State Government said permits and administrative fees for solar panel installations apply only to residents of its social housing estates, after a viral video showed housing officials confronting a man over panels on his home. The state said private homeowners and tenants across Lagos do not face the charge.
The video was shared on Tuesday and showed officials from the Lagos State Ministry of Housing’s monitoring and compliance unit telling the resident he needed approval and a fee before the work could continue. On Wednesday, Wale Ajetunmobi said the man in the clip had been misinformed about the state’s guidelines for solar energy systems in social housing estates.
Ajetunmobi said only residents living in government-owned social housing estates are charged administrative fees for alterations such as solar power systems, and that any change must go through the Ministry of Housing’s physical planning and survey departments for approval, material compliance and post-inspection checks. He said the systems are usually installed in shared areas and that the resident in the video had not sought approval before starting the work.
The clarification matters because the ministry is not treating solar panels as a private-home issue in the estates it owns. Abdulhafis Toriola said all allottees of Lagos State-owned housing estates must obtain approval before external alterations, including solar panels, and said the requirement is spelled out in the Letter of Allocation and Allottees Guide given to beneficiaries at purchase.
Toriola said the rules are meant to protect rooftops, walls and water installation facilities in estates that are built around shared assets. He said those government estates house between two and 32 families per block of flats, and that the ministry has developed guidelines covering installation quality, cable and panel configuration, and the technical skill of installers.
The ministry also says the rules are not theoretical. Toriola said it had recently stepped in to fix leaking rooftops and repeated fire outbreaks caused by solar panel installations by some residents, and Ajetunmobi said the government has previously handled liabilities from unapproved modifications, including roof damage and fire incidents. That is the friction at the center of the dispute: Lagos says the fee is limited to social housing estates, but it is also making clear that unapproved solar work there will be stopped before it starts.
