By Festus Adebayo
The Abuja International Housing Show (AIHS) has over the years entrenched itself as an event of highly significant interest to stakeholders in the global built sector. From humble beginnings over a decade ago, the AIHS has grown to become the largest housing and construction exhibition on the African continent, attracting the participation of critical stakeholders from different parts of the world. Every stakeholder desirous of knowing the current trends in the built sector and to explore the abundant opportunities therein looks forward to this epoch-making event. It is therefore not surprising that, come Monday, July 26 – July 29, 2021, all roads will lead to the prestigious International Conference Centre, Abuja, where this annual event usually holds.
The Abuja International Housing Show brings together under one roof specialised indeginuous and foreign manufacturers of building materials and equipment, world-class interior decorators, genuine state-of-the-art estate developers, architectural and construction giants, dealers in building and housing products, mortgage finance and refinancing institutions, federal agencies saddled with the responsibilty of ensuring decent and affordable housing for ctizens, and specialised institutions in construction and environmental safety, among others. The AIHS is a one-stop shop to secure the best of residential and office building and other construction needs.
In view of the fact that the AIHS is a one-stop marketplace, it saves valuable resources and time trying to secure the various components of your housing and construction needs from different locations. It also provides a veritable platform to get the best deals with mortgage finance institutions, estate developers and other service providers in the built sector. More so, it exposes people and organisation to new options of cost-effctive housing financing.
The show attracts more than 15,000 participants and over 400 exhibitors from several countries. The show also offers opportunities to make direct bulk sales and direct buying at wholesale prices and highly discounted rates. Most importantly, in view of the fact that the convener of the Abuja International Housing Show is the owner of the largest housing online news portal and promoter of Housing Development programme on television and radio broadcast stations, including AIT, TVC, NTA and Raypower FM, it is a guarantee that participants and exhibitors will get optimum publicity at almost no cost to boost their sales. It is worthy of note that the AIHS enjoys massive pre-event advertisement and publicity on traditional and new media as well as on billboards at strategic locations. The publicity is further reinforced with sustained media coverage of the event and live streaming on all social media platforms. It accords indeginuos and foreign investors opportunities to initiate international property projects and helps to maintain and extend their network in the real estate sector.
The AIHS is usually a strategic platform for many organisations and brands seeking to introduce their new products and ideas to prospective buyers, clients and investors. The registration platform provides opportunities for such brands to book in advance and reap the benefits that come with partnering with the largest housing show.
Interestingly, in the past, the show withnessed an exhibition of contemporary-modern roof designs, furniture and innovations in building technology.
The Abuja International Housing Show helps to stimulate the building and construction industry in terms of design-led housing solutions and high-quality homegrown materials and products. The AIHS goes beyond state-of-the-art exhibition to bringing together top government functionaries, housing policymakers and implimenters, building and standard regulatory agencies as well as captains in the building and construction sector. The platform, therefore, accords them the opportunity to exchange views, get first-hand information on the progress made by government institutional framework, the challenges and the way forward for the housing sector.
The event features an all-important CEOs’ forum, which is a convergence of elite chief executives from Nigeria and across the world, to devise the most effective solutions to the challenges in the housing and construction industry.
The most potent resource of the 21st century and especially in the housing and construction sector is information. Things change quickly and only those who can keep abreast will be able to compete and stay relevant in the industry. Having access to veritable and key information has always been one of the most important benefits for stakeholders who attend the AIHS. A major highlight of the event is the showcasing of innovations in the housing industry and paper presentations from experts and leading lights in the industry. In addition, renowned experts will provide housing market forecasts and examine issues such as employment, home prices, production, demand and supply.
Clearly, there is no other platform in Nigeria other than the AIHS that can bring together as many professionals, not only from the housing, real estate and construction sectors, but also from government, investment and capital markets to share their experience, knowledge and expertise on varied issues related directly or indirectly to housing and development.
The AIHS is designed to end in grand style with the National Housing Awards to honour and celebrate firms, agencies and personalities who have made giant strides in the housing sector in the past year.
An attendance makes you part of the excitement espercially as the AIHS uses the occassion to celebrate its 14th anniversary of being a watershed in the building and construction sector.
Obviously, the well calculated designs and events that makes the AIHS the largest and most successful are inexhaustible. Suffice it to say that is where stakeholders discover best practices and new methods for improving efficiency. It is where global housing enthusiasts connect with like-minded professionals and industry experts in workshops, round-table discussions and networking events.
So far, the event has been able to help many achieve reasonable level of housing affordability, access to mortgage options and market growth for relevant stakeholders and clients in the housing and construction industry.
From government officials looking for informed opinion(s) on emerging housing and construction dynamics, to private sector developers and investors looking for the best clients, environments and opportunities for establishment, to customers looking for the best housing deals, mortgages, credit and whatever access they need, the Abuja International Housing Show has been the best and most established platform in Africa for such convergence
The show’s projection to significantly reduce the housing deficit in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large is still very potent and realisable.
Quite significant is the fact that the AIHS has the support and endorsement of relevant government bodies and major players in the built sector.
•Adebayo, legal practitioner, CEO of Abuja International Housing Show, wrote from Abuja