By Akanimo Sampson
Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city is likely to play host to over 10,000 citizens and corporate organisations seeking to participate in this year’s Abuja International Housing Show.
Going by telephone calls and online inquiries, this Africa’s biggest housing and construction expo is likely to draw more participants among those hungry for affordable housing and innovative building technology .
The ceo of international housing and construction show Ltd, festus adebayo is already up beat with what the event will be offering buyers and sellers. He is promising that stakeholders will have time to present latest innovations and new products/services to the audience, and showcase their expertise and capabilities in affordable housing.
For trade sectors connected to housing and construction, the Abuja international Housing Show according to the convener, ‘’is offering them an enviable window to shore up their marketing opportunities, visibility on AIHS website, associated marketing materials as well as opportunities to present new products and innovative services to participants.’’
Continuing, this accomplished real estate player says the Show is providing industry players opportunities to network, and interact with prospective buyers from both local and international markets, opportunities for organisational exposure to new options of housing finance, opportunities to meet major professionals within the sector such as builders, architects, town planners, quantity surveyors, engineers, real estate developers, home financiers, home interiors etc., in the building environment, opportunities to exchange ideas and proffer solutions to various barriers of housing development, and opportunities to network with Nigeria’s ruling circle up close and personal.
This year’s edition of Abuja International Housing Show is bringing together credible real estate stakeholders, not those with questionable character, to discuss and display sector trends.
Interestingly, since 2005, the event has offered real estate stakeholders an additional medium for growing their enterprise, meeting prospective clients who have a buying capability – face to face and sealing deals. ‘’Over the years, Abuja International Housing Show has been able to generate not only high quality audiences and sale leads for exhibitors but also great bargains for attendees’’, Adebayo says.
For citizens and pro-citizen social formations within and outside Nigeria looking forward to affordable homes, how to get mortgage, or even looking forward to showcasing their properties, building materials and home interiors as exhibitors, Abuja International Housing Show is the place to be.
The AIHS has been recognising the need to promote sustainable housing finance models as a core theme for the Show since 2019. This is necessitated by the economic reality in Nigeria, and indeed, Africa. Already, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the country’s recovery is expected to be weak and gradual under current policies. According to IMF, ‘’real GDP growth in 2021 is expected to turn positive at 1.5 percent. Real GDP is expected to recover to its pre-pandemic level only in 2022. The near-term outlook is subject to downside risks from pandemic-related developments with Nigeria experiencing a second wave. Over the medium term, a subdued global recovery and de-carbonisation trends are expected to keep oil prices low and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries quotas in place, restricting oil-related activities, fiscal revenues, and export proceeds. Non-oil growth is also expected to remain sluggish, reflecting inward-looking policies and regulatory uncertainties.
‘’Nigeria has one of the lowest revenue levels as a share of GDP worldwide. A large share of revenues is spent on the country’s public debt service payments, leaving insufficient fiscal space for critical social and infrastructure spending and to cushion an economic downturn. In this context, mobilizing revenues through efficiency-enhancing and progressive measures is a top near-term priority. Revisiting tax exemptions and customs duty waivers, increasing and broadening the base for excise taxes, developing a high-integrity taxpayer register, enhancing digital infrastructure, and improving on-time filing and payment are important measures.’’
With a pan-African housing development financier insisting that Africa needs more than $1.4 trillion funding to effectively address the affordable housing deficit, it justifies why affordable home seekers and providers should turn Abuja International Housing Show into a Mecca for social housing. Like Nigerians, multi-millions of Africans are facing a housing crisis as a result of high population growth, increased urbanisation, poor urban planning, dysfunctional land markets, rising construction costs, proliferation of informal settlements, and underdeveloped financial systems.
Unarguably, unprecedented urbanisation has led to a serious shortage of affordable housing in cities around the world. In 2014, McKinsey & Company predicted that, if trends continued, as many as 1.6 billion people would live in substandard housing by 2025. African countries are among those currently grappling with this crisis – the continent’s housing deficit has not only been fuelled by urbanisation, but also by the growth of its vast population of young people.
