OMO-ONILE PALAVER & THE NIGERIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

The lasting impact of land use act of 1978 was not just the vesting of power in the government but the recognition of both the government and customary owners that held it in trust for the Nigerian people. The aftermath of this was the emergence of the popular omo-onile and the attendant effect on property acquisition, cost and documentation.

Today, an average Nigerian goes through needless pain and agony to acquire a parcel of land and at every developmental phase pay huge sum of money to the so called omo-oniles. Land acquisition is basically in two phase, first from the customary owners and secondly ratification of papers with the government since the formal cannot single handily grant certificate of occupancy.

Foundation fee as its fondly call; After payment has been made and title has change hands yet one is required to pay a whopping sum before sub-structures could be made (foundation). Often times, this gangsters just show-up from nowhere when materials must have been mixed and work is already in progress. The grievous implication of this is raising building cost and unnecessary delay in project development since the builder would have to prepare for this so called omo-onile.  Many Nigerians have lost their lives to fight that often erupt on site.  Roofing fees: One would have thought that the payment is once and for all but amazingly they‘ve got what they call roofing and decking fees as the case may be.

Also characterizing Nigerian property acquisition and development procedures is cost duplication. This owning to the fact that apart from the acquisition cost from the customary owners, a good sum is paid to the government for ratification and documentation. Amazingly, the total sum paid for documentation and ratification is equivalent to government value on such properties. This could therefore be said to mean paying for the same properties twice thereby depriving Nigerians of fund that could have been put into development.

Another problem associated with documentation is delay in approval and granting of C of O which often truncate the pace of development. Complementing this is policy somersault as witnessed in the case of Abuja where government embarked on revalidation exercise. C of O’s were withdrawn, securing mortgage facilities became difficult and granted ones became serious issues as bankers began to renege.  

           

EMERGENCE OF EDUCATIONAL MARKETING IN NIGERIA

Across the globe today, the paradigm shift in the market place from sellers’ market to buyers’ market has brought about the embracement of marketing as the veritable tool to wade through the challenges in the market place. Also commanding attention in today’s business place is the emergence of substitute products and services hence the slogan survival of the fittest. Amazingly essential services such as education that used to be on the exclusive list of the government have been liberalized   .

The aim of education liberalization policy in Nigeria was not just education for all but accessibility, affordability and quality regardless of economic strata.  Contributing tremendously to the success of this policy is astronomical growth in our population and the corresponding deterioration of standard in government owned schools.

Aside private sector embracement of this investment opportunity the wind of globalization has also heightened the presence of foreign educational institution across nations.

Today, competition is rising and enrolment becoming stiffer by the day inspite of quality while media investment is sky-rocketing. Educational investors seem not to be encouraged by low return on investment and the long gestation period. Parents are demanding hard evidence why the basic education cost so much and are demanding value for their money.  The resultant effect of this trend is variation in educational standards and the advent of a new frontier known as school marketing.

This necessitated the need to embrace a modern marketing tool of direct educational marketing and synergy as means of securing continuous business.

The secret of surviving adopted by international educational institutions is not access to fund or huge advertisement budget but the entrenched institutional culture of organisational marketing through institutional synergy and collaborations.

Therefore, to stand tall in the face of current challenges in the educational sector you must dear to THINK and ACT outside the box.

REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY IN NIGERIA

Real Estate Investment climate in Nigeria is not just friendly but full of untapped business opportunities that are been explored by few individuals and with minimal government interventions. Unlike other sectors of the economic that has attracted government attention and has actually contributed to the nations GDP, seventy- five percent of the private sector engagement in the housing sector has not been channeled into the nation’s main economic stream.

With the current housing deficit of seventeen million units requiring a minimum of sixty trillion naira finance, it is therefore obvious that the government alone cannot fund this investment neither can the mortgage institution contribution make any difference hence more investment is required to bridge the gap between housing supply and provision.

The few available mortgage institutions in Nigeria are said to be positioned to serve limited number of people in both public service and the organized private sector senior executives leaving the middle class un-cater for. More worrisome is the interest rate charge by mortgage institutions which is almost at pal with the commercial bank rate coupled with the short life span of such facility.

With the wide housing gap in Nigeria and the huge funds required to bridge it, encouraging foreign investors to come into the country‘s real estate market may just be the way forward. Nigeria has an estimated housing deficit of 16 million units, according to United Nations figures. If a unit is to house a family of three or four, to say the least, this means that between 48 million and 64 million Nigerians are not likely to be living in decent houses. The figure of Nigerians who are likely without decent homes is alarming, as analysis has shown that between 34.2 per cent and 45.7 per cent of the country‘s 140 million population may lack access to decent accommodation in its simplest form as reported by Punch Newspaper.

However, if Federal Housing Authority is targeting 240,000 housing units, while its public-private partnership arrangement is expected to yield 500 prototype housing units within the next four years is anything to go about, it therefore means that it will take Nigeria two hundred and eighty-two (282) years to achieve current housing needs. Therefore, Real Estate Investment in Nigeria is big and robust enough to attract both local and foreign investors like its other Africa counterpart such as Kenya, South Africa and Gahana. Real Estate business is a business for all.

Currently Kenya’s population stood at 38.6 million in 2010, Ghana‘s is approximated at 23.8 million people. These two countries put together are just about 33.3% of Nigeria’s population and amazingly they have both been able to attract $350m and $10bn foreign direct investment from Russia and South Korea, respectively.

To attract foreign investment in housing, Nigeria needs to”pursue a strategy, where international interest in the sector can be awakened and sustained and local operators and investors can attract foreign but cheaper building technologies.

HOUSING DELIVERY IN NIGERIA

Paramount to human existence across the globe among other basic needs is shelter. Today the population of the world stands at seven billion people which connotes that government across continents, regions and nations of the world must provide both qualitative and affordable homes for their teeming population irrespective of social class, economic status, political inclination, race and ethnic group.

Amazingly, even the industrialized nations of the world with solid social welfare scheme are reported to have deficit in housing provision. In spite of the effort of the government and the private sector yet an unimaginable number of people are either homeless or dwell in unbefitting environments. Brazil is said to have a housing deficit of six million units despite the one million five hundred yearly provisions. Africa continent with prevalent high population growth rate, poor economic indices and poverty is not worse for it but totally off record.

In Nigeria successive government and administrations over the years has contributed immensely in the accumulation of housing shortage. Existing estates across the nations are either not maintained or abandoned. Also characterizing Nigeria housing delivery is poor quality in a bid to minimize cost. The collapse of buildings is no longer news as people continue to cut cost in the face of continuous hike in building material cost.

The housing deficit is currently put at over seventeen million units while a whopping sum of twelve trillion naira is required to finance the deficit. According to United Nation Nigeria’s population in 2005 stands at 141 million, and estimated that it would reach 289 million by 2050. The United States Census Bureau projects that population of Nigeria will reach 264 million by 2050. To substantiate this, the current minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development declared recently that government would require a minimum of sixty trillion to provide seventeen million new housing units to address the current deficit in the sector.

This therefore suggests that the housing deficit would grow geometrically if little or nothing is done to arrest the situation.

The question therefore, is what does the future holds for an average Nigerian in terms of shelter, affordable housing option, housing finance and real estate investment opportunity as seen in developed nations of the world not just for dwelling purposes but as a means of economic security and tool for building gross domestic product.