When international and local real estate experts, professionals and sundry stakeholders gathered at the weekend for the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) Nigeria’s annual business forum in Lagos, expectations were raised as discussions focused mainly on the gains so far made in ease of doing business reform in Nigeria. The pitfalls of the reform were also highlighted.
FIABCI, an international real estate organization whose membership cuts across 65 countries of the world, recognizes the import of ease of doing business as a catalyst for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and, therefore, decided to beam searchlight on federal government’s efforts at improving the country’s business environment.
Many foreign investors do not really know that Nigerian business environment is not exactly what it is projected to be, especially in the foreign media. Little do they know too that efforts are being made to improve on the business environment, hence the need for awareness creation such as FIABCI did.
“This is an international event aimed to highlight the ease of doing business in Nigeria. It is also aimed to create awareness that Nigeria is not what people are shown on foreign media”, Adeniji Adele, FIABCI-Nigeria President, explained to BusinessDay in an interview on the sideline of the forum.
Adele said that Nigerians have to project their own image. “We should not wait for outsiders to do it for us. We need to highlight the fact that there are great opportunities in this country that need to be tapped and it is through forums like this that we can communicate that to local and foreign investors.
It was a piece of good news when Jumoke Oduwole, a senior special assistant to the Vice President on Trade and Investment who was a special guest at the forum, announced that over the past three years, Nigeria has implemented more than 140 reforms, increased its Distance-to-Frontier (DTF) score by over 11 basis points, and moved up 24 places in the World Bank Doing Business Index (DBI) rankings.
Oduwole who was represented at the forum by Soji Akinyele from the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Enabling Business Environment Secretariat, added that in the 2018 Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum (WEF) recognized Nigeria’s business environment as one of the most entrepreneurial in the world , and highlighted Nigeria’s improved competitiveness in the Enabling Business Environment.
Before now, due to bureaucratic bottlenecks, registering property in Africa’s largest economy was a huge challenge. At a time, the country was ranked 185th out of 189 economies in ease of registering property by the World Bank Group. The country had also been ranked 129th out of 189 economies in ease of starting a business, affirming an earlier ranking of the country 96 out of 97 – one above Sudan – in Jones Lang Lassalle (JLL) global real estate transparency index.
Nigeria had also been ranked 171, 62, 140 and 187 out of 189 economies in ease of dealing with construction permit, protecting minority investors, enforcing contracts and getting electricity respectively, making it the 170th economy out of 189 in the overall ranking indices.
But with the on-going reform efforts, the country’s business environment has improved significantly. Oduwole also announced an ambitious effort towards achieving sub-100 ranking in ease of doing business by 2020, which is just one year away from today.
As a result of the reforms, dealing with construction permits and registering property have become a lot easier and cheaper in places like Lagos and Kano where, before now, the cost was outrageous and punitive, while the process was cumbersome and tortuous.
“Nigerians can now access accurate information on all fees, procedures, requirements and laws from the Lagos State Physical Planning and Permit Authority (LASPPPA) website; there is access on statistical information on land disputes; infrastructure development charge (IDC) for 2-floor warehouses, and soil test and environmental impact assessment (EIA), certified true copy (CTC) of title document and survey plan; enjoy reduced costs for permits due to the elimination of some requirements, and enjoy an improved planning permit application process via an e-planning platform”, Oduwole informed.
These are laudable efforts, but stakeholders pointed out that there was more to construction, especially housing development, than just improved title documentation. Femi Akintunde, GMD, Alpha Mead Group, noted that finance was a critical issue in housing development which government was not doing anything to improve.
He pointed out that banks were still averse to lending to housing while the managers of the huge pension fund which would have been a source of cheap long term fund were not lending to real estate.
Hakeem Oguniran, CEO, Eximia Realty, agrees, adding that government has to start dealing with multiple regulatory agencies in the construction sector. He commended Lagos State government for improved title documentation, but insisted that something had to be done on regulation and double taxation.
Farook Manhood, former FIABCI world president, canvassed public private partnership in dealing with the identified challenges in the business environment, contending that government alone cannot solve the problems because of other demands of governance such as health, education, etc.
CHUKA UROKO
