Nigeria Attracts over $3bn in Real Estate Development

Nigeria attracted $3.96 billion in real estate development in 2014, which is 11 per cent of the total sum of $36.4 billion expended on infrastructure construction projects in the country.

Vanguard Newspaper reported on Monday that data recently released by Deloitte African Construction Trends placed Nigeria at the top of West African countries in major infrastructure construction projects in 2014, with the country spending $36.4 billion on major infrastructure construction projects for the year 2014.

It added that the total expenditure included both foreign and local as well as public and private sector investments

The report said that investment has been on the rise, following the re-basing of Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) to $509.9 billion in April 2014.

According to the report, the projects range from water, which took 39 per cent, energy and power (17 per cent), oil and gas (17 per- cent), transport (15 percent), real estate (11 percent) and manufacturing (1 percent).

“Whereas South Africa was previously the choice market in Africa for scalable operations, Nigeria now has a more attractive profile, offering scale and strong growth,” Deloitte said in the report. Yet the country faces some lofty hurdles if it is to realise its required infrastructure developments,” the report added.

The report noted that West Africa exhibited a strong level of growth with the total value of projects under construction increasing from $50 billion to $75 billion year-on-year, although there was no change in the number of projects qualifying for the report this year.

Although the region still accounts for just half of the level of investment in Southern Africa, it is starting to close the gap, consistent with Nigeria’s new title as the biggest economy in Africa.