High production cost won’t allow Nigerians enjoy local building materials —Bamgbade

Chief Olusegun Bamgbade is the Chairman of HOB Estates Limited. In this interview with DAYO AYEYEMI, he is of the opinion that locally produced building materials can compete favourably with the imported ones in terms of standards, but said that rising cost of production won’t allow Nigerians to enjoy some of these products.

Why do Nigerians still solely depend of foreign building materials despite the abundance of natural resources locally? 

Nigerians still solely depend on foreign building materials because that’s what is available to them.

Nigerian factories have closed down simply because the leaders are clueless.

The leaders aren’t thinking of Nigerian future. Imagine the enormous resources we have in crude oil and we are not producing diesel and other petroleum products.

Do you know how much it costs now to run a 60kva generator for an hour when a litre of diesel sells for N790.00?

Which manufacturer can afford to produce with such expensive litre of diesel? The high cost of production in Nigeria will never allow Nigerians to enjoy locally produced materials.

Is our local materials inferior to the imported ones?

Our local materials are not inferior to the imported ones. The high cost of producing local materials in Nigeria is the reason why the local materials are too expensive and out of reach for the common man.

Which of the locally building materials can compete favourably with foreign types?

All locally produced materials can compete favourably with the imported ones in terms of standard because building materials are not produced anywhere in the world without following the ISO Standards.  However, the costs of production in Nigeria will take the locally produced materials out of reach of the common man.

We also noticed apathy towards the use of local building materials. Why?

The cost of procurement is the root cause of the apathy towards the use of local building materials.

If the cost of production is not too high, the sales price of the building materials will not be too high for the people.

If the price is affordable, the people will buy since the quality is ensured.

Is there any hope of becoming homeowners for low income families considering high costs of land and building materials?

There is hope for the low income families becoming homeowners even with the costs of land and building materials. There are so many channels a low-income family can become homeowner.

National Housing Funds (NHF) facility is open to all. Prospective homeowners should visit any branch of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to make enquiries. You can get up to N15million or more to fund your home ownership appetite through the National Housing Fund.

As an astute real estate developer, what is your advice to Nigerians, including government, mortgage bankers, fund providers, manufacturers of building materials etc.

As an astute real estate developer, my advice to Nigerians is to keep hope alive by visiting the Federal Mortgage Bank and enquire about home ownership.

My advice for the government is to increase the funds available to Federal Mortgage Bank to enable it deliver appropriately on its primary objective.

For the mortgage bankers, treat mortgage applications with dispatch. Stop delaying ordinary mortgage application for years. One month is enough for you to fund or reject an application.

For the fund providers, real estate business development is not a tea party. You have to grant funds for real estate development at three per cent per annum in order for the developers to break even. Long term facility of five to 10 years will help to create homes for the citizens. Employment opportunities will equally follow suit.

For the manufacturers of building materials, please continue to endure. Keep struggling to produce qualitative building materials. Surely, one day, a government will come with human face to attend to the issue of high cost of production in Nigeria.