PATRICK AGBAZA
Mr. Patrick Agbaza is the managing
director of Pazino Homes and Gardens, a fast-growing housing and real
estate development firm. Agbaza speaks with Adedayo Adejobi on the
challenges confronting operators and stakeholders in Nigeria’s housing
sector and importance of government in policy direction and financing as
well as how Pazino is creating value in the industry and helping to
entrench an eco-friendly environment
What is your assessment of the housing and real estate business in Nigeria?
The housing and real estate development
in Nigeria cannot be separated from one another, because of the nature
of what both is. Let’s first look at housing. Housing obviously preceded
real estate. When we talk about housing, we are talking about shelter,
where human beings mostly retire to at the end of the day. Housing is
not limited only to Nigeria, and I’m sure it started from creation of
this world. But to put it very clearly, in Nigeria, the housing
development has metamorphosed. Over the years, a lot of development has
taken place. If you look at how it was 20-30 years ago and looking at
where we are today, you will agree with me that it’s taken some level of
development, even when we know that it could have been better. But
then, if you look back from where we were coming from and where we are
now, we know that the future is going to be rosy.
Over the years, you know life is
dynamic, life is unique, and the only thing in life that is constant is
the dynamic nature of life. So the housing development came as the real
estate. Real estate comes with some level of modernisation in terms of
housing. Some years ago, housing was not regulated- we had a lot of
irregularities here and there, with structures scattered all over the
place. In short, there was no regulation and no proper and decent
living. The challenges gave rise to the real estate industry. If you
look at modern-day housing structure in Nigeria, it’s now defined in a
given environment, unlike before where people just build houses without
regulation. But now the real estate developers have decided to come into
the picture to restructure housing and in doing that, they’ve brought
in some amenities. It has become well-structured and regulated with
infrastructure like the drainage, the road, security house, light, green
areas and an eco-friendly are just to name a few. So a real estate can
also be a sub-structured to housing.
In life, we have the basic needs
of man are food, shelter and clothing. Talking about shelter, for a
long time, there has been a huge housing deficit. What is Pazino’s value
proposition to bridge the gap?
Yes, you are very right. The truth of
the matter is that the housing deficit in Nigeria is very alarming. If
you say high, it is an understatement to me, it is extremely alarming
and from the way things are going, it is going to get worse, if we do
not do the proper thing. It then begs the question as to what is the
essence of government. It is to put in place policies that will have
effect, not only short time, but in the long run.
Over the years, there will be population
explosion because of the birth rate. Three to five years ago, we were
looking at a population of 130-150 million people. Just another five
years or thereabouts, we are 200 million. What will now happen in
another five to10 years? In all of this, is the government responding to
this anticipated population explosion? No. So that is why till today,
you still have a situation. Because of the nature of our business, our
ears are always within the areas of the housing. Take the statistics, go
through the 36 states and even the FCT. Look at the plans for the past
five to 10 years and look at the plans that the states and federal
government has, it’s close to zero. As we speak, you need to see how
many Nigerians are sheltered.
The government has failed woefully, even
on its own trying to come out with ideas that will ameliorate the
situation, as if that is not enough to make the situation worse. One
would have expected that the government would have executed a lot of
mass housing schemes all over the place, by not only providing low cost
housing, but also encouraging the private sector by creating an enabling
environment, making it more friendly; providing loans with little or no
interest facilities to drive the private sectors to complement what the
government is doing; but what happens today is that you have a
situation, whereby government comes out with some funny policies.
Moving forward by way of solution, we
expect the government to be to more proactive rather than be more
reactive. We want to see a situation, where government can come out with
holistic plans that can help towards taking Nigeria to the next level,
not only the housing needs of now, but also the housing needs of
Nigerians in the next 20 years through the national planning.
The government should encourage the
private sector. I’m a realtor, thousands of us are all over the place,
encourage us by coming out with good things. It could be facilities,
policies. Government can acquire some lands in 36 states of Nigeria,
make available finances, monitor them, and set up agencies, which will
help real estate developers in making some of those schemes a reality.
Government can also help in establishing companies that will manufacture
building materials.
Let’s give kudos to companies like
Dangote, but the truth of the matter is that even Dangote alone cannot
supply the cement for the average Nigerian. When we are talking about
housing what really come to mind, the land itself, cement, iron rods,
asbestos just to name a few of that; by now we expect the government to
rather setup more of those factories producing such materials, because
the more we have more of them, the cheaper their prices would become
cheaper. Because as it is today, there is no market that sells for the
rich, there is no separate market, it is that same market everybody buys
from. If the government does not know what to do, they should take a
trip to the countries like Malaysia where it has succeeded and bring it
back home. If you ask me after food, the next one is shelter so those
are the steps that I think the government can come in to solve the
housing problem.
How does Pazino intend to take
advantage of the housing gap to the benefit of the people? Specifically,
what is your firm bringing to the table?
Every problem is an avenue to make
money. Those who find solutions to problems are the ones in money. We
came into business because we felt that there was a unique gap in the
society in terms of housing needs. We felt the area should be revamped.
We saw unprofessionalism.
With over 23 sites all over Ibeju Lekki
axis and we’re still counting, we have come out with a very robust
development pattern that cuts across the Ibeju Lekki axis of Lagos,
taken care of the rich, the middle class and the lower class of the
society. We have different estate projects that cater for every Nigerian
irrespective of their financial standing.
We have also embarked on low-cost
housing schemes as a way of supporting government and helping people
acquire some cheap plots of land. We also have a lot of schemes that
have started in free trade zone area for the lower class in the society.
We also intend to do some mass housing schemes to support whatever the
government is doing,
We have four housing units presently as
we speak and they sell for between N800,000 and N1.5 Million as the case
may be. The figure is just for the land itself, which is not for the
houses. This is one of the things we are doing to help the people and
government in mass housing and we expect that as we speak, with the
prototypes, the designs for those houses, it should be as low as
N13million, N15 million. At the end of the day, with that amount,
someone should be able to have a 2-bedroom apartment to himself, even if
it’s not up to the finishing stage, but at least something that is far
more than carcass so that you can now finish your structure by himself.
Talking about where you have
your foot print, you’ve mentioned Ibeju Lekki in Lagos. What other parts
of Lagos or Nigeria do you have your presence?
We are taking a step at a time. We
already have over 20 projects and still counting, so it is not just
enough. Rome was not built in a day, so for us we are taking it one step
at a time when we are done with here, then the next stage is to spread
to other areas in Lagos. There have been a lot of calls from Port
Harcourt, Abuja. We have offices in those areas and there have been a
lot of calls for us to come and start, but we just want to take it step
by step, It is within our plan to expand in Nigeria.
What makes Pazino unique among the real estate development companies in Nigeria?
We did not just come into the Real
Estate industry because we want to add to the numbers. We are unique. We
saw some gap and we’re filling it tremendously
We didn’t come to begin to set up
estates. One of the cardinal things that drove us into doing what we are
doing now is that prior to when we started we went all over the place,
looked at already existing estates and discovered so many flaws like,
the poor provision of the infrastructure. The infrastructure is far from
what it should be- its dilapidated roads and drainages.
Nigerians have made mockery of what an
ideal estate should be. Across the length and breadth of Nigeria, if
there are one million estates in Nigeria , 950 to 980 are very far from
the standard. An estate should be a home. We don’t use the word estate,
we say gardens. When you are done with all activities of the day a man
should retire to his home; And what is a home? How do you feel it? As
you drive into the entrance of the garden, trees, lush vegetations,
tranquility, serenity and all are those things that make it our unique
selling point.
As I speak to you we are at the edge of
becoming the first real estate company in Nigeria that will be doing
what they call over 50 per cent of turning waste to wealth in Nigeria.
From the waste, we will generate electricity, gas and much more.
In the area of pricing we have very
affordable and competitive and pocket-friendly payment plans spread
across as much as 36, 24, 18,12,6 months as the case maybe.
In what ways is Pazino giving back to the society?
Thank you very much, you will permit me
to be restrictive of some things. I don’t like blowing our trumpet as it
has to do with issues that you just raised now. Because to me there is a
verse in the Bible that says, ‘when the right hand does any good the
left hand should not make it open.’ But it may interest you to know that
we have done so much, we have given back to the society.
Firstly, we have what is called regular
orphanage visitation, in terms of there is hardly any week that we don’t
go to some of these orphanages to give back, to show love and kindness
to the needy. We have also partnered with some programmes within Lagos
state government during the last Children’s day celebration at Ikeja
Park, where we support the government to host the Children, and we were
able to give out lot of gifts on the children’s day; and others that we
have done privately that we have not come out. We also continuously
support people with serious health challenges, the needy and a lot of
churches.
What are the institutions or brands that you are partnering with, firstly for development and brand enhancement?
When you are talking about partnership
the first that comes to mind is THISDAY Newspapers. THISDAY Newspapers
has been supportive to the brand in terms of publicity. Innocent Idibia,
popularly known as Tu Baba just got signed as our brand ambassador and
ever since we brought him on board he has been fantastic. The
followership, and in fact, he has been a good addition, not to forget
Azizat Oshoala, the current African Female Footballer of the Year. There
are lots of partners, who have made the business a success.
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