By Ayo Alonge
THE Chief Executive Officer of M.I. Okoro and Associates, Meckson Innocent Okoro, bares his mind on the issue of mass housing in Nigeria and its implication of housing delivery.
While citing a couple of giant projects his company has embarked on, Okoro was swift to state the challenges militating against real estate practices in Nigeria, toppled by global economic recession that has crippled businesses everywhere. In this interview, the Imo State-born CEO also fields questions relating to business and the economy.
What is your general comment on the business climate of Nigeria, at the moment?
The truth is that the economy is completely asleep. Nothing appears to be taking place right now. This started about one year before the election, when the Jonathan administration focused on how to survive the election and there was less focus on economic activities. The hype for change created a lot of anxiety and uncertainty in the market place and there was a total wait-and-see attitude on the part of investors. Before the appointment of ministers in this administration, the lacuna that had been created for six months set us back too. That is the level of the damage. The multiplicity of policies that are not healthy to the economy also created more shock for economic activities, particularly with forex trading and remittance of funds. Since Nigeria is not a socialist country, you cannot be at the middle of the game and create a goal post on polices that have started somersaulting. That is what has affected the economy of the nation.
When you were starting this company, what did you have in mind?
I had in mind to contribute to the growth of Nigeria’s economy through real estate consulting and quality service delivery. That focus has not changed only that the economic policies of successive governments have been militating against the realisation of such dreams.
To what extent, then, have you achieved your corporate goals, as a company?
If you look at real estate management in Nigeria, M.I. Okoro is a very tall figure when you drop the name. To a very large extent, I consider myself and firm as having contributed immensely to the growth of real estate in Nigeria.
Tell us some of the projects and remarkable achievements you have recorded as a company.
We started the evaluation of institutional properties like that of universities. I felt that most of these properties are not valued and each time students go on rampage and damage properties, the school administration merely dip their hand in funds. I felt it was then that higher institutions started evaluating their properties and our firm was the first to introduce an insurance scheme for the University of Lagos which was founded since 1962. It was a very big assignment and that gave the impetus to other universities to emulate it.
Also, talk about Trade Fair complex, I was one of those in charge of relocating more than 100,000 traders. Our achievement, as a company, has been quite tremendous. In terms of internally generated revenue for Lagos State Government, they know our impact. Also, we have assisted the Lagos State Government in ensuring the actualisation of Tejuoso market and issuance of the property to prospective tenants. In real estates, we have developed certain services to may our clients that I don’t need to mention their names on the pages of a newspaper.
We were involved when the Federal Government called for an evaluation of all public assets all over the federation. We have done all manner of evaluation for AMCOM, banks, corporate bodies, individuals and many more.
What is the financial estimate of your company? You cannot put value to it at all and I cannot say that.
What are the challenges you faced in real estate practices in Nigeria?
The major challenge is still that Nigerians are poor. There is no disposable income. People don’t have money to buy property and government policies are not helping matters. There is also the challenge of policies of house ownership in Nigeria. There is no possibility of a common man owning a property in Nigeria and this affects the growth of the profession and house delivery in Nigeria. I can call that political and financial challenges
In one of your interviews, you did say that all public office holders must declare their assets…
Yes, I said they must do that before and after they are sworn-in.
What would that portend for us as a country?
That would be wonderful because it would reduce high level corporate stealing for those in government. If a senator knows that at the point of taking an oath of office, he would be valued by a qualified estate surveyor, what we call investigative evaluation, he won’t want to steal. We would also want to know what you have been able to acquire when leaving office. When you know you will be investigated, the level of stealing would be reduced. We hear of public office holders stealing billions of dollars. For me, they annoy the sensibility of the electorate. If we do this investigative evaluation, we will be able to know and monitor how much the person has been able to steal in government. Politicians go about sharing dollars in the villages to market women and that is unimaginable.
There is the notion that estate valuers are only there for the rich, and don’t consider building for the masses in the society. How do you argue that? We were not trained to develop for the poor. Yes, our job is to advise government to do that. Building for the poor is supposed to be taken care of by a deliberate policy that is called social housing infrastructure through a social housing fund which is strictly by government. There is nobody, including you, that would do an investment in real estate and not borrow from the bank. The bank will want to see your cashflow before giving you such huge funds. Instead of the government focusing on building for the poor at a subsidised rate, and empowering the local governments to do so, they neglect that.
If it is a functional local government system, the local government is expected to even do the building of houses for people. If government had created a special funding for the social housing system, it would have been fine. But today, government builds to contest with private developers like us.
Are you attributing the problem of shortage of low cost housing to government?
It is not about attributing the blame to government, it is entirely the responsibility of government. Government has to bear over 120 percent of the burden of low cost housing. Even when done, those who work in such parastatals allocate the houses to themselves and later sell at high prices, not giving to those that it was meant for. That is our experience with that. Government should ensure such houses are built for the people and that is what is done in other countries of the world.
How do you manage competition with other real estate firms?
The issue is that every business operator has its own strategy to survive in the market place. Despite the hardship and competitiveness of the business, we are still on top, when you measure us alongside the big estate valuers. We have got right our selling point which is to ensure we deliver effective quality service to our clients and once the client is happy, we do more business with them.
What should the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing know and do about real estate and low cost housing?
Well, I was thinking that when Fashola, who was an erudite governor for that matter, steps into office, the first thing he would do would be to invite major stakeholders like estate surveyors and valuers in the industry, including architects in the industry, so we could chart out a course for effective housing delivery in this country. That he has not done and I am not sure he will do. He is taking a lot of things for granted and I cannot see him making any impact in the ministry. I am not underrating his efficiency but as far as I am concerned, he hasn’t started. As far as housing is concerned, he has not started. When he starts, people like us will know.
What has been your highest point, as a Chief Executive Officer?
Well, that is nothing but the struggle to grasp with government policies that are meant to kill business es in Nigeria. Where this office is situated, I have been on generator for the past six years. If I tell you how much my company pays on diesel, it is enough to pay staff salaries. That is a big leakage coupled with the fact that the Land Use Act created by the Obasanjo administration when he was the military Head of State, also is a great barrier to our breakthrough in housing in this country. The Minister of Finance has not thought it wise to know that since Nigeria’s existence, from independence, we are supposed to have been operating on an efficient mortgage system that can guarantee efficient houses delivery. Building houses involves a lot of capital.
So, what can be done to revamp the mortgage system?
First of all, there has to be an enabling law to fine-tune the mortgage system. There has to be a serious legal framework and the government has to deliberately create primary mortgage institutions and power them, just like we power commercial banks. We are not creating the mortgage institutions like the ones Babangida created between 1992-1994. Yes, the idea was good but there was not an effective process to ensure they are doing the right thing. It all collapsed within two years because there was not an adequate legal framework for it. What the CBN is doing for commercials banks is what the Federal Mortgage banks ought to be doing to primary Mortgage banks. Since the creation of Federal mortgage Bank, what can they say they have been able to achieve. As far a I am concerned, it is a waste pipe. It is either they are overhauled or they should be closed completely because they are building private interest and not national interest.
How is the current global economic recession affecting your company and your personality?
You see, it is difficult to ascertain that because you cannot discuss me or my company in isolation. The way it is affecting everybody is the way it is affecting me. I am only one among the subset. For example, if all the money we are making is going into buying diesel to fuel the company, it is affecting me. We can’t look at that separately.
As a CEO, how do you unwind?
I am a great golfer and I travel globally playing golf. I play golf a minimum of three to four times weekly and that s why I keep looking younger. This is the same way I looked 10 years ago. I don’t age and you can’t see stress on me because I live a balanced life and I know when to be with my family. I know every CEO now is like a pilot that has flown the plane to a turbulent weather and we are all fastening our seat belt to fly to a calm weather. Any CEO that is not fastening his seat belt is not operating in this economy. I live a balanced life in the area of recreation and sporting activities too.