By Moses Nosike

Moved by the passion to provide affordable shelta for the average Nigerian, Jide Alade, a Nigerian trained architect and real estate developer presently runs a housing development and construction company as the Managing Director, Structuracasa which focuses on innovative solutions to the mass housing needs in developing countries of Africa. Trained at the University of Lagos and  University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Mr Alade in this interview with Moses Nosike, discussed the challenges of housing scheme and others in the country. Excerpts:

Alade

What is the structure of Structuracasa Limited to impact in nation building?

In a nutshell – the democratization of home ownership in Nigeria is our vision .  The mission is to enhance the quality of life in modern African societies by providing improved access to home ownership through affordable, high quality housing solutions to meet the needs of the mass market. We do this through propagating policy ideas and innovative construction solutions related to housing.

Housing development is still an issue in Nigeria today, how do we handle this issue?

Infrastructure is the greatest investment that can be made to reduce the pressure on the large urban centres. This is where the jobs are and people have to get to work so they huddle as close as possible to the employment centres. However if we have efficient mass transportation systems and good road networks people can live relatively far away from work and commute to work daily. This is the model of many advanced economies. What happens is that satellite towns  initially start off as bedroom communities for large cities but eventually over time they develop their own employment bases and amenities.

Another way to look at the problem of housing expense in major urban centres is our land use patterns. We cannot continue building one house on a 500sqm plot in expensive location that has huge demand for housing. We need to consider densification and increasing the floor area ratio or number of people per acre. Lagos is doing this currently with its Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Ikeja model city plans that allow much denser development than was the case previously.

As a housing development coy, who are your targeted audience?

Structuracasa is involved in more than just development and construction. While these are the visible aspects of our work we are also involved in incubating design and policy ideas that can help unlock the latent value in the housing sector. We know huge economic multiplier effects that can be created through an efficient housing market.  We are currently building for the middle class and upper middle class due to the lack of efficient mortgage financing in Nigeria. However we have policy ideas and plans to promote incremental semi formal housing schemes in conjunction with mirco finance banks to address the moderate income segment of  home seekers in large urban areas.

Has your company been facing challenges?

I am sure all business in Nigeria at the moment are facing one challenge or the other. As a small business we are also facing challenges in this economy.

As an entrepreneur, how can we empower SMEs to boost economy?

Some of my big concerns about SMEs  in Nigeria are corruption and the bureaucratic bottlenecks that small business face just trying to do their daily work. Add inadequate financing  and poor infrastructure and you get an economy where the small businesses  find it very hard to survive let a lone thrive. These are the things that we can all focus on to ensure SMEs succeed and become a sustainable driver of employment creation.

What is your take on the state of the economy?

The Nigerian economy is going through a tough time presently. We can only hope that this significant reduction in oil revenue has woken the leaders of our country to do the hard work necessary to diversify our economy away from oil. If the right changes are made now and sustained over the medium term to long the Nigerian economy should fare well. We  such have very good fundamentals from population, arable land, mineral resources and a culture of hard work and resilience that adequate leadership and focus should turn Nigeria into a strong growing economy over the next several years.

In my opinion good basic infrastructure in the areas of power, transportation and agriculture are the absolutely necessary foundations for sustainable growth. Add to these good targeted education  and healthcare and you get a country ready to industrialize and feeds its people and the rest of Africa.

Despite the current tough environment, the best time to invest in real estate is at the bottom of the  economic  cycle. There are more opportunities to buy property at reasonable prices  during recessionary periods and hold on to property to sell   when the market is at the peak of the cycle.