How to buy land in Asaba safely when you live abroad

Buying land in Nigeria from abroad is entirely normal and done successfully every day. It is also where a disproportionate number of bad stories start, because distance removes the checks a local buyer takes for granted.

Here is a process that keeps those checks in place.

1. Establish who you are dealing with

Before anything else, confirm the company exists as a company. Ask for the registered name and RC number and verify it on the Corporate Affairs Commission register. Ask for a physical office address, then confirm somebody can actually visit it.

A company that is reluctant to give you its registration details has already answered your most important question.

2. Inspect the land, even from six thousand kilometres away

Never buy land you have not seen. Distance is not an exception to this.

Ask for a live video inspection rather than a recorded tour. On a live call you can direct the camera, and that difference matters. Ask them to show you:

• The specific plot, and its beacons
• The access road into the estate
• Any infrastructure they have claimed, such as a transformer
• Any government signage in the area
• The surrounding land, so you see the context and not just a framed shot

Record the call. A company that objects to being recorded while making factual claims is telling you something.

3. Send somebody you trust

A video call is good. A person on the ground is better. A relative, a friend, or an independent surveyor you engage yourself. Ideally somebody with no relationship to the seller at all.

4. Have the documents reviewed before you pay

Ask for the draft Deed of Assignment, the survey plan and the written terms, and send them to a Nigerian lawyer you have engaged yourself. Not one recommended by the seller.

This is the step diaspora buyers most often skip because of time zones and momentum. It is the step that would have prevented most of the stories you have heard.

5. Pay the company, never a person

This is where most diaspora fraud actually happens, and it is worth being blunt about it. The estate is often real. The plot is often real. The account number, forwarded through a WhatsApp status, a group chat or an enthusiastic agent, is not.

Rules that protect you:

• Pay only into a corporate account in the company's registered name
• Never pay an individual, and never a realtor, however well you know them
• Confirm account details by calling the company's published office line yourself, on a number you found on their website rather than one sent to you
• Treat any urgency around payment as a reason to slow down, not speed up

6. Keep your own records

Keep the recording of your inspection call, the written terms, proof of payment, and your issued documents in one place. If a question arises in five years, you will be glad it is all together.

A realistic note

None of this makes buying from abroad risk-free, and anybody telling you otherwise is selling. What it does is remove the specific failures that catch careful people: unverified companies, unseen land, unreviewed documents and misdirected payments.

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