Ahead of the social impact initiative conference of the Centre for Enterprise Governance, founder and Chief Executive of the centre, Dr Adeyinka Hassan, spoke with GODSPOWER MADOJEMU, on challenges, potential and prospects of the real estate sector, among others.

What is the purpose of the social impact initiative conference?
The conference is an initiative of the Centre for Enterprise Governance. We carefully selected the topic that addresses what affects humanity, livelihood and wellbeing of everybody.

The Real Estate and Construction Industry affects all of us. We all require shelter, good roads and other social infrastructure to make progress in life. This industry contributed N74.7 trillion which translated to 28 per cent to the GDP of Nigeria in the year 2022.

The conference will also focus on the need to revise the industry given the spate of collapse in both road and building construction. The sub-theme of the conference will address issues bothering on Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement and Threats and opportunities in the Construction Eco system.

The 28 per cent contribution to the economy is no mean feat. Such an industry requires great attention, especially at a time that inflation rate is itching towards 30 per cent high and issues of security and the economic downturn have made our people take the option of hibernating abroad.

We need to encourage our youths to take the option of staying back to be a part of the renewed hope vision of the government of the day. The industry is one of the biggest employers of labour in Nigeria today. If you look at the value chain, artisans, professionals, small medium and large businesses are all connected in the economic value chain and as such, we cannot allow the industry to suffer consistent losses as we have witnessed in the recent past. As a centre taking responsibility for driving enterprise success, this is our own way of supporting economic growth and making societal impact.

How will the forum benefit the building/construction sector in particular, the stakeholders and the Nigerian economy?
The Conference is beneficial to all and sundry. It is not only for Builders. Any business organisation has a need for shelter or accommodation. Even the small food seller at the building site is contributing to the economy. A Lawyer is involved in regulations and compliance and also in dispute resolution in the construction value chain. A marketer is involved in marketing the developed structures. If you look around, you will realise that virtually all stakeholders starting from the supply chain, professional service providers and even the government are affected. The discourse at the conference will help everyone to reappraise how to get involved to recreate how we do things in the Industry. We have carefully selected all the speakers to include regulators, end product users, suppliers and manufacturers in the Industry. The Communique we are hoping to develop shall be published in a National Newspaper and related Government Departments.

Currently, there are complaints about the ease of doing business. How can this be improved?
To be quite candid, in my assessment, I believe the government of the day is doing its best but they can still do better to ease business processes in Nigeria. A lot of this has to do with the public sector especially with bureaucratic bottlenecks. Another major problem is corruption. It was once said that if we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill us. Corruption has been ingrained into our fabric in this country and I believe this is the time to be deliberate about seriously stemming it and making it unattractive in our system. We need to have the understanding that ‘corruption kills’ and this is perhaps the time to adopt the slogan. When you look at the effect of corrupt practices on our social infrastructures and the economy, you will understand what I mean by adopting the phrase ‘corruption kills’ as a slogan.

Loss of income to the Government, loss of means of livelihood, collapse of enterprises, dwindling quality of education, loss of reputation, loss of lives and properties insecurity, these and many more are the negative impact corruption is having on us as a people, the economy is currently in bad shape, what is your advice to the President to revive it? The government needs to be decisive about how it will deal with the issue of corruption to be able to retain our human and material resources and attract

The economy is currently in bad shape, what is your advice to the President on this?
The Government of the day is no doubt doing its best, but you know, when things have been in bad shape for a long time, it will require time and effort to be fixed. However, beyond that, the government needs to be deliberate about ensuring things are back in shape to improve our economy. We need to create opportunities for foreign investors and also make the business environment conducive for local investors.

Small businesses should be further encouraged, because I am aware that the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) has done a lot and these were part of what birthed the Ease of Doing Business initiatives and recent amendment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, which recognises the status of small companies and granted them some reasonable exceptions to make business attractive. But a lot still needs to be done in this area of ease of doing business, especially with the problem of multiple taxation for small businesses, opportunities for small businesses to grow, infrastructure development which include good road transportation for supply chain logistics and improvement of other means of transportation i.e. rail transport and even air transportation for cargos.

There has to be a review of the NYSC scheme. This is a scheme that has outlived its time. It was well intentioned but issues of security are now making a mockery of it. Parents no longer want their children to go beyond their jurisdiction for the programme and really, would you blame them? In order to ensure food security, in my opinion, the government should remodel the scheme to take care of agriculture. For instance, if the NYSC scheme is converted to Food Security Scheme for all fresh graduates, why not? We have massive land wealth that can be used for the programme. Government can create different departments under the scheme where everybody has their roles.

There would be a Legal Department, Account Department, Engineering etc, graduates will be allocated to various departments where they can function and in the Food Security Year, every graduate will have their role to play to contribute to economic development of the nation. The Commission responsible will be producing food for internal consumption and even exportation. We can innovate with food preservation and how we handle agriculture generally, which will create jobs the value chain derived from will improve the quality of life of an average Nigerian.