‘Investment In Real Estate, Key To Job Creation, Economic Growth’

June 19, 2019

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Stakeholders in the real estate industry have urged the Nigerian Government to invest masively on real estate in order to provide jobs for the growing number of jobless youths and facilitate economic grpwth.

Worried by high unemployment rate in the country, concerned stakeholders have called on the Federal Government to invest massively in real estate to provide jobs for teeming Nigerian youths and to promote economic growth.

Some of these stakeholders include the former Managing Director of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mustapha Chike-Obi; President of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Mr. Kenneth Nduka; Executive Secretary, Association of Housing Corporation of Nigeria (AHCN), Mr. Toye Eniola; and Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Mr. Bisi Adedire.

According to Obi, government should focus investment in real estate to produce the kind of jobs Nigerians need to grow the economy.

Speaking at a lecture titled: “Repositioning The Nigerian Economy for Sustainable Growth” in Lagos, he stated that investment in real estate could create two to three million jobs and trigger economic growth.

He noted that investment in refinery was good as it is been promoted currently, but that due to the kind of environment the nation has found itself, coupled with high rate of unemployment, government should focus more on real estate for job creation and quick economic growth.

The ex-AMCON managing director’s suggestion came few weeks after President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, urged the Federal Government and other African countries to invest in infrastructure and housing to support the rapidly developing continent.

He said that Africa was rapidly growing, adding that United Nations estimated that its population would rise from about one billion to 2.4 billion by 2050, “with the urbanised population rising from 400 million to 1.4 billion; that is more than four times the current population of the United States.

To support this growth, he stated that countries must invest in infrastructure and housing.

According to him, Africans must patronise African markets, which is why the free trade agreements by African nations is the direction to go to strengthen African markets.

Speaking exclusively with New Telegraph yesterday, Nduka stated that two things that could change the narrative of Nigeria’s slow economic growth were investment in housing and agriculture sectors, due to their potentials to create jobs for millions of unemployed people.

He said that government must invest massively in real estate to create jobs and lift the economy out of slump.

His words:

:“For you to build a unit of housing, you will engage the services of a land surveyor, architect, engineer, builder and non-skilled workers, who will buy water, food and doors and others from vendors.

“The value-chain is great. The best way government can come in to reflate the economy is by injecting money in those areas that can increase productivity.”

He called for a government’s policy that would give room for easy access to cheap loan at single digit to attract investments and enhance home ownership among Nigerians.

“There must be conscious efforts by government to increase housing situation to meet the needs of the targeted low-income group as it is being done in Rwanda,”