Construction & Real Estate

As the continent’s most populous nation and arguably its biggest economy, Nigeria offers a lot of potential for construction firms – particularly given the significant need for infrastructure work, from housing to roads. However, meeting this demand will require overcoming a number of obstacles, ranging from cash flow issues and payment delays to import of equipment and building material costs. A difficult macroeconomic environment is also constraining efforts to remedy this situation in the short term. The property market is defined by significant long-term potential, but realising it is not necessarily simple. A drop in the price of oil, a lack of foreign exchange and a depreciating currency are all combining to slow the economy, in turn dampening demand for both residential and commercial real estate. However, with a young and urbanised population of more than 184m people, the outlook in the longer term is more positive. If household incomes rise and access to finance improves, the scope for growth is immense.

This chapter contains a roundtable with Ronald Chagoury Jr, Vice-Chairman, South Energyx; Odenigwe Ike Michaels, CEO, Centenary City; Vinay Mahtani, CEO, Churchgate; and Elias Saad, Chairman, Eko Pearl Towers.