Real estate expert, Femi Akintunde has said leveraging the real estate sector is essential to achieving Nigeria’s N1 trillion economy ambition by 2026.
Recall that one of the ambitious targets set by the President Bola Tinubu-led government at the onset was the aspiration for Nigeria to attain a $1trn economy by 2026. President Tinubu, who made the declaration at the 29th edition of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) in October 2023, also said, “A $3trn economy is possible by the end of the decade (2030).”
Akintunde, who is the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Alpha Mead Group, stated that the real estate sector has significant potential contributions toward achieving the N1trn economy target.
According to him, “if properly harnessed the real estate sector will play a significant role in driving the achievement of Nigeria’s N1 trillion economy ambition through extensive job creation, urban and rural landscape renewal, and robust tax and fee contributions.”
In a statement containing his overview of the real estate sector for 2025, the facility management expert noted that with a recent GDP report showing that the sector cracked the monopoly of oil and gas in 2024, the sector’s potential for 2025 is enormous.
The real estate chief, however, noted that “the projected growth and contribution of the sector can be hampered without optimizing the role of facility management in the built environment.”
“Precisely, across sectors, only crop production and trade performed better than the real estate sector. The sector’s 46.52 per cent expansion, 16.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth rate and 5.43 per cent contribution to real GDP in Q3 of 2024 provide room for more optimism in the sector. “The sector valuation is expected to reach $2.61 trillion this year and $3.41 trillion by 2029, according to Statista,” he said.
He highlighted that as an integral part of the sector, facility management coordinates people and processes to expand the productivity and value of properties. The operations encompass the construction, maintenance, and remodeling of buildings, as well as repairs, provision of security and safety services, cleaning, and routine management, among other activities.
According to Akintunde, sustainability, cybersecurity, automation, well-being both at work and home, smart buildings, and AI have expanded the responsibilities of facility management consultants. Therefore, utilizing their services is crucial for sustaining growth in the real estate industry.
He noted that the latest trends in facility management offer a pathway to strengthening growth in local property utility resulting in impressive property valuation and investment yield.
The expert warned developers and homeowners who choose not to engage the services of a facility management firm or consultant that an attempt to self-play both roles will yield poor facility management which, according to him, “snowballs into an unsatisfactory tenant experience, complaints, court cases, unrealised utility projection, threat to human health and safety, structure deterioration, expensive repairs, facility failure, abandonment, and low investment yield.”
“Without utilising the expertise of a facility management company or professional facility managers all the activities surrounding the development of housing could distract the developers or owners from the onerous tasks of efficiently maintaining properties to expand value for users. The impact on the growth trajectory of the real estate sector can be telling,” he said.
To cover the gap, he said his firm, Alpha Mead Group will keep scaling our operations to support the growth of the real estate sector – not just in Nigeria but across the key locations within the African region. Our services aim to assist investors in the real estate sector in meeting their objectives.
“We provide Integrated Facilities Management operations and Consultancy services to large-scope, complex and multi-serviced facilities across Africa. For about two decades now, we have provided quality facility management services to some of the Fortune 100 companies operating in Africa and the Middle East markets.”
While stating that it is not enough to celebrate the rebased position of the Nigerian real estate sector,” he submitted that “concerted efforts should be targeted at scaling performance to make the sector the first or second largest contributor to the GDP.”
This, he said, will help the government and private investors scale returns, as users scale experience while emphasizing the significance of optimizing trends in facility management to the projected growth.
