The Nigeria real estate sector is fraught with several challenges. One of them is the issue of fake developers who scam unsuspecting members of the public with the promises of building them houses but unable to back such claims up after collecting money. Some of them even disappear into thin air afterwards.
Speaking with Housing Development Program on Thursday, the Deputy National President of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) and CEO of JEDO Investments Limited, Alhaji Aliyu O. Wamakko said the association is working round the clock to fight the menace and has developed partnerships and strategies to help members of the public identify and avoid falling victims to these scammers.
According to Wamakko, the body has developed a partnership with Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC and Special Control Unit on Money Laundering – SCUML in making sure that the Nigerian real estate sector which was rated in 2016 by international assessors as a medium high risk area for terrorism financing and for money laundering is sanitised.
He said; ‘’the real estate is almost the biggest producer of labour in the country, and that has made it a medium high risk sector for money laundering, scams, as well as terrorism in Nigeria.
‘’We recently held a meeting with an international organisation on this issue and are holding series of meetings with security agencies to make sure that we have proper registration systems that will sanitise the sector. Through our partnership with SCUML, we are sensitising our members to know that they cannot remain members of REDAN if they don’t have a clearance from SCUML, which is followed by our own background checks.’’
According to him, any member of the general public who wants to do business with any developer should enquire about their REDAN membership and compliance with SCUML.
‘’The public can confirm the authenticity of any developer from our register, and if your money is taken, we can get it back for you as long as the developer is our member. We are giving the society and government confidence about the sector,’’ he said.
He said the body has also started training their members in various fields on security, financing and taxation so that they will be up to date and be complaint to transparency standards required of them.
