Category: Building & Properties

The International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) has said except the economy is liberalised and agencies of government are made to complement one another in services delivery, the much desired Foreign Direct investment (FDI) into the sector may not come.

FIABCI, however, noted that government agencies constitute obstacles to real sector development. Its World President, Assen Makedonov, who spoke at FIABCI International conference in Lagos during the week with the theme: “Ease of Doing Business: Attracting real fund into our real estate and the importance of the property scorecard”, said he may not come back to the country if he was an investor because of the stress he was put through to get into the country. One of such xeperience, he noted, was getting Visa.

He urged the government to liberalise VISA processing, approval and ensure that relevant agencies work together to achieve the ‘ease of doing business’ rather than act in ways that do not encourage trade. He recalled his experience in coming to the country from Bulgaria last week as unpalatable

According to Makedonov, no genuine investor will go through the bureaucracy, the odious task of getting visa, the unnecessary questioning and delays from the Nigerian Embassy and would not look for an alternative country to invest his funds.

Last year, he said, the city of Barcelona welcomed over 81 million tourists and wondered if the case would not have been different if the tourists had encountered any encumbrance in the process of entering Spain. He added that any country ready for business and FDI is known by how easy and pleasurable it is for visitors to enter it.

He encouraged less of human interface with government agencies assigned with the responsibility of approving land titles, permits  and others in real estate sector, noting that except that is done the growth of the sector will still be hindered.

FIABCI, he said, is in the country to focus on all the factors that enable and enhance real estate development. The FIABCI boss argued that any country that does not take real estate sector development serious will have stunted growth.

FIABCI past president, Mr. Farook Mamood, who was also at the conference, canvassed the need to discourage bureaucracy and red tapism. He said: “Make things as simple as possible for the real estate sector that is the only way the GDP of Nigeria will grow. In India we have what we call “speed money’, which any investor, who wants his application to move from point one to two must comply with. Though it’s not official it has come to stay, but my advice to government of Nigerian is to make the sector work by ensuring that any real estate investor is not confronted with obstacles that will discourage his investing in the country.”

Earlier, FIABCI country president, Mr. Adeniji Adele, said experts in the real estate industry have over time blamed policy inconsistencies, delay in legal process, affordability and cumbersome title registration process, poor state of infrastructure, social amenities and inadequate access to finance for the slow progress recorded by the sector in our country. He commended the government for introducing reforms through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) as evidenced by World Bank’s 2018 Ease of Doing Business Index, where Nigeria ranked 145th out of 190 countries.

FIABCI, he revealed, has realised that effective collaborations among players in the private and public sectors have the capacity to create enabling growth path to the nation’s economic development. According to him, this will enhance the ease of doing more businesses within and among industry professionals locally and in the Diaspora.

He encouraged his colleagues to practice the core elements of property business with integrity such as property rights, access to credit, effective governance, rational dispute, financial transparency and appropriate regulation.

Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning, Mrs Boladele Dapo-Thomas, said the state has come out with reforms in the sector with provision for approvals that take between 10 to 28 days unlike the old order. She regretted that one of the challenges faced by her ministry was the third party documentation influence. She frowned at how some people are reluctant in trying out the reforms, despite the fact that the state has reformed the sector.  She said those who do not want to change with the reform are looking for how to exploit loopholes that will help them avoid paying statutory fees and obeying town planning laws.

The Permanent Secretary said her ministry has put enough measure in place in the state to enhance the sector by making approval processes less cumbersome for practitioners and property owners  to acquire their legal titles for their properties.

Earlier, Senior Special Assistant to Vice President on Industry, Trade & Investment, Jumoke Oduwale, said the nation’s performance on ‘Ease of Doing Business index’ is a testimony to the government’s measured response to creating an enabling environment.

Oduwale, who was represented by Soji Akinyele, explained that over the past two years her office has worked with Lagos and Kano states in addition to other 34 states  to advance the ease of doing business reforms.  She said the government has made available 126 reforms in the last 36 months and other procedures to ensure quality interaction with civil servants by developers and other private sectors operating in the sector.

The reforms, she said, they included quality of transparency of information available to the public, ensuring that state government’s make available and put in the public domain a guide to acquire building and construction permit and titles to document.

She encouraged the public to test the reforms while interacting with the various government agencies and further explained that the public and operators in the sector have the right to seek redress if not satisfied with the services rendered by various organs of government.

Improving mortgage banking and urban planning policies will see more foreign investments in closing Nigeria’s 17 million housing deficit,” the Chairman, Quantity Surveyors Academy Board (QSAB), John Alufohai, has said.

He also said there would be a boom in the construction of infrastructure for delivering oil and gas to power plants and industries when Nigeria finally delivers new oil industry legislation, that is, the Petroleum Industry Bills (PIBS).

Alufohai sated these at the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) Construction Arbitration Skill Acquisition and Certification Training (CCArb), in Abuja.

The QSAB chair, who described construction as a “very expensive business”, said where there is money, there is a risk and that any country that wants to attract a lot of money, in terms of investment must take risk mitigation very serious.

Alufohai said: “That is certainly what quantity surveyors are doing by extending and sharing arbitration skills. Construction is fraught with all sorts of risks, from delayed delivery to cost overrun. For a country like Nigeria, with a huge infrastructure gap and limited means of financing, we have no choice but to procure infrastructure increasingly using Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).

“If big-ticket construction projects are fraught with risks because they have a considerable possibility for dispute, PPPs multiply the risk. Arbitration is thus a means of considerably de-risking investment in construction generally and in projects procured through PPPs particularly.”

He hinted that Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), one of the biggest private investors in infrastructure, which has $450 billion under management, is enhancing its capacity to handle projects in emerging markets, including Nigeria.

He urged construction professionals to get ready for receiving much of the projected investment.

“The Quantity Surveyors Academy will be conducting high-quality training in many other areas such as oil and gas and heavy engineering, focusing on new trends in construction in these areas, including economics and technology, as well as private and public sector financing,” he said.

He expressed hope that construction professionals in the public sector would also try to take advantage of these courses and training to achieve the needed growth through a seamless public-private partnership.

The CCArb is holding at the International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation Abuja (ICAMA). It will end on February 1.

Lagosians  have been advised on proper waste management.

Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) Managing Director Mr. Ola Oresanya gave the advice during a programme on Lagos Traffic Radio.

He urged residents to avoid throwing refuse on the streets or in the drains. But rather to put them in refuse bags to enable operators pick them.

He observed the relationship between traffic and improper refuse disposal, blaming those who improperly dispose their waste along major highways, medians or in public places.

He promised to implement the laws that make it compulsory for commercial bus drivers to have waste baskets in their buses to discourage commuters from throwing waste outside vehicles.

He maintained that if the roads were clean, people no matter their unclean habits would find it difficult to throw dirt into it, adding that when they find dirt everywhere, no matter how disciplined they are, they might be tempted to join the fray.

On the bad sanitation habit of some residents, especially around   Mushin where refuse is dumped on the road and median, Oresanya  said  LAWMA has put some monitors to discourage residents from this anti-social behaviour.

He appealed to those who  dump refuse in unauthorised areas to desist from it, warning that the agency would sanction defaulters.

He said:  “We will intensity our effort to ensure people obey simple sanitation laws and be responsible in their actions. We intend to do door-to-door campaign in Mushin, so that people will have their containers in front of their houses for easy evacuation by the Private Sector Participant (PSP)  operators. The challenge of waste evacuation is more pronounced in Mushin and it’s environ because majority of the residents refuse to provide their own trash cans. Apparently they are waiting for the local government or the law enforcement agencies to come and force them to do the right thing this is a challenge to having a cleaner Lagos.”

The LAWMA chief said it is compulsory for residents to register with the PSP operator close to them for efficient service.

He stressed that if waste is not properly managed, it would cause problems for others, adding that adequate and proper waste disposal is the responsibility of all. ‘’It’s compulsory to subscribe to the PSP in your community and you have a right to optimum service,’’ he added.

He said: “In any event, if a subscriber is not satisfied, he is free to make a case to us and he is entitled to good service. We will, no doubt, embark on more advocacy and enlightenment programmes. We will improve on what we have been doing with residents especially in our door to door interaction with residents.

‘’People who burn refuse are not solving any problems but are adding to it. Inhaling obnoxious fumes can cause respiratory problems in that particular community. Old Ota road that boasts of mountains of refuse will be looked into.

He regretted that the good work the PSP were doing at Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area, especially in Obawale, was sabotaged by cat pushers from Ogun State,  who dump  refuse on the  border  between  the state and Ogun.

‘’Since they realise that we pick our refuse promptly, they come daily to dump refuse on the bridge and run away. But we are making arrangement to have the bridge policed to discourage their nefarious activities,’’ he said.

Oresanya said the agency was working on discouraging  communal waste system, but encouraging the door-to-door step system, which makes people responsible for their waste.

The Nigeria Institution of Civil Engineers (NICE), Lagos State chapter has called for the implementation of the  safety policy in the sector.

It said various accidents at home, construction sites and office premises would be avoided if  safety policies were factored into   projects.

At a one-day dialogue organised by NICE and the Lagos State Safety Commission, with the theme: “Safety consideration in facilities management”, the keynote speaker, Tokunbo Ajanaku, urged professionals to adopt safety measures in their designs.

Ajanaku, who is the institution’s National Vice Chairman, stressed the need to inculcate safety from the design stage. He explained that the choice of a roof design should not be based on its beauty or what is fashionable, but on what would be approachable in construction and maintenance.

He said:  “There is need for built environment professionals to have a clear understanding of safety issues in every step of the construction stage if not they will deliver dangerous projects that are life-takers and accidents waiting to happen. A professional who fails to consider safety is a ‘hired assassin’, the difference between him and the conventional assassin is that he does not know his target.

“If you disregard safety in anything you do, you pay more as a result of incidents, accidents and evacuation because lives would be lost and productivity reduced.”

A University of Lagos don, Dr Akanmu James, also canvassed the need to implement safety policy in the construction sector. He said the nation was not lacking in policies but the will to enforce the  laws.

He cautioned that enforcement should not be the first line of charge, but rather advocacy. He regretted that some agencies of government use enforcement as income generating and punitive measures as against advocacy and corrective measures to serve the public.

Lagos State Safety Commission Director-GeneralHakeem Olaogun Dickson said the agency have a checklist for the sector.

He said every construction site is expected to be insured, including the workers in case of any accident.

Dickson said the agency is  monitoring the construction of boreholes and burglary proofs in homes to prevent deaths.

Earlier, NICE Lagos chapter Chairman, Lola Adetona, in her welcome speech, urged her colleagues on the need to ensure safety in construction.

She advocated a year-free  building collapse and site accidents.

She advised adherence to safety conventions in the sector, adding that steel shoes, hand gloves and helmets be worn at sites.

According to her, safety is everybody’s business, which should be imbibed by all.

The World Bank Group has launched its Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience.

Under the plan, the World Bank Group will rally direct adaptation climate finance to  $50 billion over the next  five years.

In a statement, the bank stated that it would cost an average of $10 billion yearly, more than double what was achieved during the financial year from 2015-2018.

The bank said it would pilot new approaches to increasing private finance for adaptation and resilience.

World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva explained that the plan will put climate resilience on an equal footing with their investment in a low carbon future for the first time.

He pledged the preparedness of the bank to rally funding to help people build a more resilient future, especially the poorest and most vulnerable who are most affected.

He said the increase in adaptation financing would support activities that include delivering higher quality forecasts, early warning systems and climate information services to better prepare 250 million people in at least 30 countries for climate risks.

Others are supporting 100 river basins with climate-informed management plans, improved river basin management governance, building more climate-responsive social protection systems; and supporting efforts in at least 20 countries to respond early to, and recover faster from, climate and disaster shocks through additional financial protection instruments.

Georgieva stated that in addition to boosting finance, the plan will also support countries to mainstream approaches to systematically manage climate risks at every phase of policy planning, investment design, and implementation.

Former Secretary-General of the United Nations and co-chair of the Global Commission on Adaptation, Ban Ki-moon said: “This Action Plan is a welcome step from the World Bank, the world’s poorest and most climate vulnerable countries stand to benefit from its increased finance and support for longer term policy change. The Action Plan builds on the link between adaptation and development by promoting effective and early actions that also provide positive development outcomes.”

According to him investing in mangrove replanting may not only protect a local community against sea level rise and storm surges but also create new opportunities for eco-tourism and fisheries.

He said further that early, proactive adaptation and resilience-building actions are more cost-effective than addressing impacts after they occur. Adding that the Action Plan also includes the development of a new rating system to create incentives and improve the tracking of, global progress on adaptation and resilience.

A new report has ranked Lagos ahead of Abuja and fourth among the 10 wealthiest cities in Africa with a cumulative wealth of $108 billion.

The report published on property news outlet africapropertynews.com was based on the The AfrAsia Bank Africa Wealth Report 2018.

The report said though Lagos is not the capital of Nigeria, it serves as the gateway for 80 per cent of Nigeria’s exports and one of the world’s fastest-growing cities.

The report showed that South Africa still boasts the main concentration of wealth in Africa.

South Africa was placed as the most developed nation on the continent, with four of Africa’s 10 richest cities.

Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital, valued at $276 billion was named Africa’s richest. It came first in the ranking followed by Cape Town valued at $155 billion and described as the city with the highest prime residential rates in Africa. Cairo (Egypt) with $140 billion value was ranked third and then followed by Lagos.

Other cities that made the list include: Durban (South Africa) $55 billion, Nairobi (Kenya) $54 billion and Luanda (Angola) $49 billion.

Also named at eighth position was Pretoria in South Africa with $48 billion, Casablanca (Morocco) $42 billion and Accra (Ghana) $38 billion at 10th position.