By Kingsley Adegboye

The Chief Executive Officer of Dutum Construction Company Limited, Temitope Runsewe, wants the federal government to deliberate about policies that will drive the nation’s construction sub-sector of the economy grow and result in GDP growth.

Runsewe who spoke on the sidelines of the just concluded West Africa Property Investment WAPI, summit in Lagos, said “It is important we receive the support of the government to make us grow. And this support comes in form of providing us platforms, providing us opportunities and funding that can make us compete. Because if we are not able to compete with our foreign counterparts, how do we grow?

“And when the foreign companies come with cheap funding at zero per cent, one per cent, while we as local construction service providers either cannot get the fund, or when we do, we are getting it at 30 per cent per annum and above, you can see it is a struggle to compete.

“So, the government has to be deliberate about this because our job has a ripple effect on the nation’s GDP. This is because when you give a local construction firm projects, the money stays here for the most part.

“For instance, Dutum Construction Company is here and other local construction firms. We employ our local people, we employ graduates from our local universities, we employ and train artisans so that we can build our local capacity. So, the money gets recycled and that results in GDP growth. “But when you continue to give the biggest projects to foreign companies, they do their beat and take the rest of the money out. So, we are having capital flight, and this is a challenge. The government needs to be deliberate about this .

“Yes they can say we don’t have the capacity, but how do we build the capacity? You build the capacity by doing, and how do you do it? You do it by giving local companies opportunities to execute jobs. So, government needs to be deliberate about this.

“We cannot be on the same competing ground with people that are getting money from their governments, it is unfair competition. So, tilt competition in our favour to grow our economy. Our locals need to participate in construction. Policies have to be put in place for foreign construction companies to engage the local construction companies where they are building. If we continue like this, in the next 50 years, we will have them building everything in Nigeria”.

Runsewe added that “The future is a combination of a number of things. First of all, is the understanding of where the majority would be needing houses and then their taste and in brick and mortar. I feel that developments that are able to combine the ability of the younger generation to live, work, plan and be enabled through technology is where the future lies.

“We will be seeing a number of developments coming up and we will also see technology playing a huge role in how those developments are used”.

Reacting to the effect of Covid-19 on construction industry, Dutum boss noted that “The effect of Covid-19 is obvious. We were not able to work on sites, and even when we did, there were many protocols we needed to observe. And if there was no work, there was no productivity, and a lot of construction companies then had nothing to do. But now that there is vaccine and a lot of protocols can be observed, construction companies are back to sites and this means improvement in our productivity”.

Explaining services by his firm, Runsewe said Dutum Construction Company Limited provides construction services, pointing out that “Our own role as a service provider is to build and deliver building projects in a most safe and adding value manner so that the developers can concentrate on their core”.