Bennett Oghifo

The construction industry has fallen into disrepute over the incessant collapse of buildings, premium and less, and this reflects badly on the professionals in the sector.

The Managing Director of UPDC Plc., Mr. Odunayo Ojo said this ugly situation is avoidable if all the right boxes are ticked, including enforcement of regulations, soil and materials testing, as well as monitoring and retraining of construction personnel.

According to Mr. Ojo, “We need to do more on the regulation of the construction industry, insisting on the use of good quality materials, and monitoring of builders. Professional bodies should continue to check their members on performance.”

He said that above all, building approvals issued to developers must be checked regularly to ensure they are adhered to strictly, stating that buildings collapse, among other things, as a result of engineering failure.

He said there should be regular capacity building in the nation’s construction industry, stating that it was unfortunate that “good hands are leaving. Training of construction personnel, particularly artisans, is imperative.”

Ojo said UPDC Plc could assist in reducing these incidents of building collapse, offering its wealth of experience in the industry, through their Real Estate Advisory platform. They use their property management portfolio to assist investors and companies to design and build, using their expertise, for a fee.

In his overview of the economy this year, Ojo stated that the first quarter was very challenging, mainly because it was the political season and this usually necessitates the suspension of business and investment decisions. “Investors decided to wait things out. Besides, there were some disruptions in the economy on account of the implementation of some policies, especially the cashless policy, which meant that corporate institutions could not make conclusive decisions during the first quarter of the year.”

He said the good news is that following the elections, they were beginning to see a very positive response in the market and that investors’ sentiments seem to be positive and strong, and the outlook on the macroeconomic level is what “I will describe as cautiously optimistic.”

In spite of the fluctuations in the economy, UPDC is staying strong. UPDC is the leader in Nigeria’s real estate sector with a portfolio of upscale housing, hospitality and commercial developments. They are now taking on the middle property market, where the Managing Director, Ojo, said there is effective demand.

About UPDC’s strategic outlook, he said this year, they began some new initiatives which we believe will also lead to growth in the business. “Notably, we started a new project this year which we call The Hampshire. This is one of our attempts to sell the middle income housing, which is our core strategic direction.” 

The Hampshire, a 5-hectare site and services scheme, is located in Sangotedo along Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos. Investors in this scheme can build various house types, including single family homes, semi detached homes and apartments.

The axis where The Hampshire is located, he said, is becoming a favourable destination for the middle class because it is very accessible to major commercial and industrial nodes in Lagos. “Given that we now have the new deep sea port commissioned, the Dangote Refinery, the new airport that was announced last year, we have the Fourth Mainland Bridge, all coming into that neighbourhood, we believe that servicing that neighbourhood with high quality residential and commercial offerings through The Hampshire will be beneficial to our customers and is also going to be one of the drivers of growth for UPDC.”

Prospective homeowners are expected to adhere to the company’s site and services development control guidelines that they must sign before construction begins.

The company, in addition to this, continues to deepen its involvement in other areas of their business like the Festival Hotel in Amuwo Odofin, which he described as their flagship hospitality offering.

He said the hotel continues to do well, stating that in the first quarter of the year, apart from guests, several corporate organisations held their retreats there, held corporate seminars, and also had annual general meetings, stating that the hotel is “one of our core areas this year: to deepen our involvement in hospitality, and really reposition Festival Hotel as the most premium hotel on the mainland.”

The company, according to him, is also deepening its involvement in what he called ‘Real Estate Advisory Work’, offering project and development management as a service.

The concept is to improve the “project management and development management capacity in the industry. When we hear of collapsed buildings and when we hear that there are developments that are not up to the quality that the authorities, regulators and even the customers expect, we see it as the failure of the industry, we see it as one of the reasons for the influx of low quality developers into the industry.”