Knight Frank Nigeria has joined the league of corporate bodies lending helping hand to Lagos State government to fight coronavirus and also cushion the hash effect of the deadly virus on the people.
The company, which is the world’s largest independent residential and commercial property consultancy with about 19,000 staff and 512 offices across 60 cities globally, took it upon itself to fight hunger among people in its immediate neighbourhood.
The real estate firm, at the weekend, gathered over 1000 residents of Lagos Island who it considered the most vulnerable and less privileged in that neighbourhood and provided food and drinks for them as a way of cushioning the impact of COVID-19 on them. It also provided face masks for the people.
“We are here to help the government to fight Covid 19. Today witnesses the sharing of some foods, drinks and the provision of face masks for the people in line with precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus,” Frank Okosun, CEO, Knight Frank Nigeria, explained to BusinessDay in a brief interview.
“We as a company believe that, with collaboration, we can stop the spread of this virus. We are here to feed about 1000 people and we are happy about the turnout of the people to share in what Knight Frank is offering,” Okosun added.
He disclosed that they had been operating in Lagos Island neighborhood for the past 50 years and the people had been quite peaceful to them and so the palliatives were their own way of helping them.
The weekend ‘feeding of the multitude’, which the chief executive said was part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, was the climax of similar gestures in the past. “We had been feeding between 200 and 250 residents of the island in the last six weeks,” he said.
Lanre Afini, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, representing Lagos Island, commended Knight Frank for the kind gesture. He said the palliative was one of the collaborative steps he had taken along with the company to reach out to residents of Lagos Island.
“My role is to support the company to ensure that the gifts get to the right people,” he said, calling on other corporate organisations to think of ways to also support the less privileged in the society to prevent civil unrest.
Okosun commended government’s efforts so far at containing the spread of the virus, but did not look forward to the resumption of work on Monday, May 4 with much excitement because, according to him, “the numbers of confirmed cases are spiking.”
He informed that the pandemic had affected the property industry, pointing out that, for the past six weeks, nothing had happened in the market. “There is no work; basically there is going to be low business, there won’t be transactions like it used to be before. It is going to affect sections of our transactions,” he said.
He said that his company was watching as things played out with the gradual easing of the lockdown and what the government had put in place. “It will be gradual; we want to see how things will work out,” he said.
He revealed that, as a company, Knight Frank has been working remotely since the lockdown. “We are going to continue working remotely. While some will staff work remotely, others will come to the office in line with government’s directives of 40 percent staff strength.
On whether he was expecting any intervention from government for the real estate sector, Okosun said emphatically that the sector was yet to see anything. “We are, however, waiting to see what the government is going to do for the construction sector. We expect a drop in title registration and other aspects of construction,” he said.
Though he expected to see improvement in transaction in the next couple of months, he could not say categorically say what was going to happen in the property market until work resumed fully.
CHUKA UROKO & KELECHI EWUZIE
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