Some stakeholders in the real estate sector have identified poor infrastructure and lack of finance as the challenges to the growth of the sector.
They made the observation on Tuesday at the West Africa Property Investment Summit held at Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos.
Mr Kfir Rusin, the Managing Director, African Property Investment Events, said that the purpose of the summit was to change the narrative in the West African property sector.
Rusin, also the founder and convener of the West Africa Property and Investment Summit, said that the objective of the event was to create a platform that would drive growth in the real estate sector in Nigeria.
He said that it was also to put the sector in the forefront of government’s agenda by making sure government understood the importance of the sector and its contributions to the economy and Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
“The development will help to overcome the obstacle in the market and also help to fish out and utilise the opportunities in the sector.
“I think with this kind of real estate summit, the importance of the sector to the economy will be highlighted.
“Because it is a forum that addresses the challenges and proffers solutions to the dwindling economy through the enormous investment and employment opportunities in the sector, ” he said.
Rusin said that there were lots of issues that still needed to be addressed in the Nigerian economy, adding that the oil slump in 2014 put the nation’s economy off balance.
“The government rely majorly on the oil sector, which is not encouraging enough, there are other sectors that can fetch the government huge revenue than oil like the real estate sector and others.
“I think the government has started to drive the right initiatives in terms of foreign exchange and infrastructure development, but need to do more.
“There are lots of investments that the government needs to do more like power and infrastructure, ” he said.
Rusin said that the major thing the government needed to do was to diversify economic resources from oil dependence to other sectors.
“The government policy in doing business and investing in Nigeria is friendly and encouraging,” he said.
Mr Baruwa Adesesan, an Assistant Director in Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission, said that the mandate of the commission was to encourage, promote and coordinate investment in Nigeria.
He assured the stakeholders that the commission would consult the appropriate government agencies and ministries to negotiate specific incentives to investors.
Adesesan, however, said that the commission would ensure that all the challenges identified at the forum would be addressed to ensure a lasting solution to them all.
Mr Bolaji Edu, the Chief Executive Officer, Broll Property Group Nigeria, attributed lack of finance and poor infrastructure as constraints to the development of the sector.
“The nine months lag is caused by the financial crisis in the country.
“There has not been a lot of financial support in Nigeria recently; we are not quite on it. We are still working seriously on the growth of the sector.
“The decline in the market has given us time to rethink,” he said.
Edu advised government to improve on the provision of infrastructure and create opportunities in the sector for key players and stakeholders to access finance easily to develop the industry