Agenda For Change: Evolution Of The Real Sector

Tokunbo Omisore Change is inevitable if our nation is to commence on a new era of growth.

Nigeria, the most populous African nation in the world, should be more involved in Research and Development (R & D) as a way of determining and charting a new course for its diverse communities and economy. R & D should become the target of the new change, which recent continued professional development programs have proven to be the key to poverty eradication and control of capital flight.

As a nation, we hardly talk about R & D or innovation and lately, there is an increasing demand and desire to seek African solutions to our developmental needs. Though we have many Nigerians taking up these challenges across our various higher institutions, it appears that the relevant government organs fail to recognize and encourage such innovations and would rather patronize foreign products.

There is a huge propaganda about creating employment opportunities for the youth yet we fail to encourage R & D, which is the key to achieving our goal.

R & D will regenerate our dead and forgotten industries that were originally set up for the purpose of development growth and providing employment. Unfortunately, most of these industries have been converted from their primary purposes over the years and now serve as religious houses or have become commercialised as events centres. We watched our industries lay off thousands of workers in exchange for the handful of employees running the new enterprises.

A few years ago, a ceramic tile industry in Ogun State shut down due to low patronage as customers felt that the product did not meet their tastes. R & D would have been of immense help to ensure that the business sustains its relevance to consumers. Many businesses continue to close due to the failure of government to provide an enabling environment to encourage and improve upon local products.

As a nation, we need to promote and proudly recommend Made-in-Nigeria products produced from locally sourced materials. This will promote research reviews on the products and bring the transformation our dear nation requires to a successful and rewarding reality.

Our banking systems are mainly into trading oil, gas and energy. In my dealings with most banks, they claim they only have short-term funds available, leaving the Real Sector at the receiving end of the cash drought. Unfortunately, short-term loans leave developers and landlords with no choice but to hike rents or sell property in order to at least repay the banks within the usual three to five year loan tenure.

One would ordinarily think that the panacea to the shortage of long term funding needed for developmental projects would be the national contributory pension fund, which is currently in excess of N4.6 trillion. However, accessing the fund has been a major challenge. This accessibility challenge requires the urgent attention of the incoming government, private sector operators particularly the pension fund administrators and investment bankers. There is an urgent need for all stakeholders to come up with the right framework to make the funds available for real estate and other infrastructure development in the country. The harsh local environment does not provide the basic human needs of affordable, humane shelter and abundant food supply. Should these two needs be in adequate circulation, corruption will become unfashionable. While demanding 'Shelter for All' from government remains a tall order, and this is a discussion for another day, another sad aspect is government's lip service in growing the retail market industry.

The retail market evolution through mall development commenced 10 years ago with The Palms. The AOS Mall, Surulere, Lagos, is a neighborhood mall designed to ensure affordability to local retailers, which commenced operations in 2010.

Today we all woo the international brands and are happy to mention how they have contributed to our mall developments but sadly, l wonder when we will celebrate local brands such as Food Company, Supermarket, Ruff N Tumble, Health Plus, MedPlus, Montaigne AH o mention a few that are still standing despite the harsh and unfriendly financial market.

Where are the Pension Funds that developers use in other parts of the world to grow their retail industry? As earlier mentioned, the cost of funding real sector development is suicidal for local developers and as such a deterrent to growth. On this note, l seize this opportunity to congratulate the great and tireless General Muhammadu Buhari on his deserved victory to reshape our nation and set it on a good footing.

As an architect-developer with expertise in developing tools for the retail market, I sincerely and with all humility, hope that the Gen. Buhari led government will set a vision and strategy for the real sector and retail market growth. These sectors are a continuous pool for employment, as a neighborhood mall of 10,000sqm gross rentable area will provide direct and indirect employment to at least 1500 people.

I look forward to the incoming government providing periodic transparent reports on all aspects of governance. In addition to this, we should also appraise the retail sector evolution to ensure the creation of more employment opportunities as well as empower all stakeholders to develop the nation, region and continent at large.

Government needs to make provision for future developments as well as integrate cultural values and economic consciousness into the built environment in order to ensure sustainability.

To achieve this, the nation needs to support R & D and ensure that innovative ideas are celebrated and translated into reality. We need government, partners and investors to assist in the development of these ideas and solutions.

If R & D in architecture and other construction disciplines is encouraged, developed and shared among practitioners, the over-dependence and craze for objects and ideas from outside will disappear and we will feel more at home in environments and structures that work for Nigeria and modern Africa.

The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) remains a dream if Africa wants to catch up with the developed world. Rather than “catch up,” Africa needs to "wake up" to the reality that we must look inwards and use the experience of others to create cost-effective African solutions.

I seize this opportunity to appreciate the Shoprite team for their belief in continuously investing in Nigeria and the African continent at large. This major anchor tenant that commenced retail supermarket business about 40 years ago in South Africa, currently has in excess of 2300 stores all over Africa. In the last 10 years, the company has supported several SMEs in the food processing and packaging industry thereby driving a retail market evolution that complements our growing cities.

Our people deserve better lives. As a representative of a body that is a lead partner in the UN Habitat World Urban Campaign, we all need to work collectively as city changers to ensure that we build sustainable better cities. The Shakespeare phrase remains a constant reminder: "What is a City but the People?"

Revamping our economy should be of utmost importance to all. It is time to wake up to take our rightful position in the development of our country, the African continent and the world at large.