By Jude Njoku

Promoters of the unregistered Construction Development Bank may renew the bid to licence the bank which is expected to alleviate the funding problems currently bedevilling the construction industry in Nigeria. The renewed bis is sequel to the huge debts being owed contractors and consultants by the three tiers of government and their agencies/parastatals.

Olusegun Ajanlekoko

The bank which was being promoted by the built environment professions and the Federation of Construction Industry, FOCI, among other stakeholders, became stillbirth following the inability of stakeholders to meet the mandatory N25 billion capital base required by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN for registration of new banks or renewal of the operating licence of existing banks.

Indications that the stakeholders may renew their bid to get the bank registered emerged in separate interviews by Vanguard Homes & Property with two of the key promoters. The arrowhead behind the floating of the specialised bank, Mr. Segun Ajanlekoko noted that the issue of housing would have been considerably reduced and infrastructure development tackled more holistically, if the Construction Development Bank was allowed to take off.

“Every time I have the opportunity to talk about funding, I see the opportunity that we had through Construction Development Bank to help this country grow so big and achieve rapid development in terms of infrastructure, which includes housing.

Unfortunately, the bank was not licensed, maybe because we were not mature for it at the time it was being canvassed. But I always believe that the time will come when everybody will key into the dream and it is coming gradually.

If we had the Construction Development Bank, the issue of housing would have been considerably reduced and infrastructure development would have been tackled more holistically than what government is doing. People will have confidence in a private-sector run Construction Bank than in a government organisation. Government has set up an Infrastructure Bank but what is the impact?

Who are being serviced? For me, it is not serving the interest of the nation but the interest of a selected few. Until we are sincere and see this Construction Development Bank as a must and government gives its tacit support by helping it to access some long-term funds, it will be a problem to develop this country as rapidly as it should be,” Ajanlekoko who is the current President of the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy, CASLE, said.

His views were corroborated by the President of the Federation of Construction Industry, FOCI, Mr. Solomon Ogunbusola, who hinted that the stakeholders may take a second look at getting the bank registered. “ About ten years ago, we moved the idea of having a Construction Bank.

The idea then was that we all register and introduce this construction bank to the government; that once they give us jobs, we deposit all our papers/documents to the bank and through the bank, the government will be paying us and if the government cannot pay, they (bank/government) will now liaise between themselves. That was the time they were doing what they called recapitalization of banks with a minimum capital base of N25 billion.

When that thing came up, we discovered that many banks went out of the market and there was no way we could get N25 billion at that time. That was how that idea died. We have discussed it several times in our meetings. If we can be encouraged, maybe by the Ministry of Finance and Works Ministry, it will easier and cheaper and more effective for us. It is a very good and welcome idea and we shall look at it second time, to see if we can do it,” he said.

“ If government, for example, redirects the policy on pensions funds towards long-term loanable investable funds, it will create the necessary funds that will be put into this kind of construction bank and it will yield a great effect on the whole nation. There are unclaimed dividends, huge resources. If one trillion Naira only from the pensions fund is used to invest in this long term construction development, it will change the entire country dramatically; just to use it to do our railways reconstruction and roads.

I am an optimist, I still believe that something will come out of the construction bank, not the ones they are doing. We gave them all the idea, they take it from you and turn it to Infrastructure Bank that is run by themselves. The same thing did with Urban Development Bank which has crashed. No government can run these entities successfully, not in our environment,” he said.