My dream is for every Nigerian to own a home -Wale Bello

Prince Wale Muftau Bello, CEO, MSH & H, is not your everyday businessman. Though he’s in the real estate sector, which is a very lucrative sector, Bello, who’s also a politician, is not into the sector primarily to make money, but to contribute his quota to Nigeria’s growth so that Nigeria’s housing problem can be solved. In this interview, he tells OSEYIZA OOGBODO BLOG what should be done to solve the critical housing problem once and for all. Prince Wale Muftau Bello is one entrepreneur who is as astute as they come. A real estate entrepreneur since 2008 when he was in his final year at the Lagos State Polytechnic where he studied accountancy, he discloses easily why he’s into real estate. “I’m basically into what I can call the lifeline of every individual. We know that after food and clothing, the next thing is shelter, where a man lives, where he heads to after work or the business of the day. I’m into property, buying and selling of land, and anything that concerns property,” he explained. Being that his explanation came so glibly and easily, Business Courage asked him if real estate is an easy sector to be in, but he disclaimed it immediately. “No, it’s not that easy. But in every business, you have to have perseverance, patience and persistence. Those are the three Ps that will help you succeed. It won’t be easy at the beginning, but when you have those three Ps, definitely you’ll achieve your set goals, and you’ll be known not just in Nigeria, but all over the world.” And on how he really started out, he said, “My parents were instrumental in my venturing into business. When I was growing up, my mother was into interior decoration, my father into paint-making, and I used to assist them in both these ventures and I picked both from them. So when I decided to go into business myself, it was already part of me through my work for my parents.” And on what he has achieved, he said, “It depends on what you call achievement. It’s not until you build a skyscraper before you’ll say you’ve achieved. What I’ve been able to achieve is that I’ve been able to ensure that lots of people are able to achieve their dream of owning their own homes at a time when they thought they can’t. I’ve been able to educate them on the need to secure their future through owning their own property. There’s nothing as fulfilling as having a customer that patronises you refer you to another, and you see them continuously, and you have a cordial relationship. That’s what makes a business grow. So, business growth, I’ve achieved that, and lots of other things.” Very knowledgeable about his sector, he admitted he’s aware that Nigeria has a housing deficit to the tune of millions of housing units and he proffered a solution to the problem. “Yes, I’m aware of the housing deficit in the country. Last year, I was in Abuja when the federal government said they are going to build certain units to cushion the effects of the housing deficit, but it never saw the light of day. There are different solutions that can solve this problem. One of them is by encouraging the local contents of what we use in building. When we build sometimes, we use foreign materials and companies, it makes it expensive. What I think they can do is to make sure the local content is more and they should make sure our local companies have more stake, that means that we should believe in ourselves. Secondly, we can curb the deficit by making low cost housing units available than what we have now. What we have today are not low cost houses because when houses go between five and eight million naira, you cannot call that low cost again, when someone is earning below a million naira annually, such person cannot afford it. The government should ensure the amount at which they give out the houses is cheaper than what we have now and how can they achieve that? It is by emphasising on the outskirts, away from the cities and that is how we can bring development into those areas as well. You cannot say that government should build at a loss too; a lot of factors are involved to make houses cheaper. They also need to put more into mortgage, whereby people can pay for their houses over a period of time and when it is considerable, people would be able to own their houses easily.” Since he’s in support of local contractors like himself handling the nation’s constructions, BC pointed out to him that it’s local contractors responsible for the constant collapses of building in the country. “In any profession,” he responded, “you have those that are professionals and you have those that are road side. This also affects construction. There is a general body that handles construction, if they ensure people follow standards and procedures, we are going to be able to reduce issues of collapse buildings. But when you want to raise a bungalow to a three-story building, so as to saVe cost, there is going to be problems, people should ensure they patronise professionals and not roadside builders. We secure lives and property when standard is put in place.” And on if Nigeria can achieve affordable houses with cement and the other building materials currently in vogue in the nation, he said, “I was supposed to have said this earlier. I think we need to move away from the tradition of using cement. And all these materials we use here. Mud bricks are affordable and cheaper, they save lots of cost, and using it, we would be able to build more. There is also the wood option as well; this is common in some foreign countries. Wood and bricks can be used to build and they are going to reduce the housing deficit we have in the country today. I think we have to diversify.” Regarding his current projects, he said, “We have 50 plots of land at Mowe, Ogun State. The beauty of it is that where the land is located is accessible and it is super cheap. We have made it this way so that an average Nigerian could be able to build. It is close to Abeokuta, Ojota, Lagos Island through the express, and it will be a good place to live.” Since omo oniles are one of the hazards of the real estate sector, he explains how they affect him. “The omo onile thing is a culture that has been for a long time. We ensure that the head of the family is carried along and we make them know what we are doing is to bring development to their community. So we don’t really have any problem with omo oniles in our own case. We also have land across the country. We have in Kwara, Abuja, Lagos State.” And since mortgage makes it easier for more people to have access to owning their own homes, BC asked him if his company has a mortgage structure in place. “Yes, it would be easier for people to get houses through mortgage,” he admitted, “but presently we don’t have any mortgage in place, but we are working towards that so that people can be able to spread their payment and become owners of houses easily. We are working on that.” Concerning how real estate entrepreneurs sell land but the buyers are forever in their hold due to unspoken agreements, Bello said that he doesn’t engage in such practice. “In our own case, every landlord is independent, has his own light, water and all that can make his family comfortable. Whatever we are doing is based on agreement, what we emphasise is for them to have a standard. There is an association for the landlords that would be responsible for their security dues on their own discretion, they are deciding on their own, immediately we sell to them, they are independent. When you look at the land we are talking about, it’s going to exist and go on even after us. All we have in life are borrowed. As soon as we sell, we back off, let them have independent of what they want to do. In our own situation, once we sell, we back off, no issue of omo oniles, we ensure that all legal documents are well procured from the state government and we pass accordingly to the landlords.” Concluding, he advised the government on the nation’s housing issues, saying, “We know at this point the country is going through hard times and it’s going to take time to get over it and my advice for the new government is to speed up the recovery process. So, as soon everything is in place, we know that the priority is: after education and health, the next is the issue of housing, so that the millions of Nigerians without their own homes can have shelter over them. It has a negative effect on the nation when people are not well housed. If Nigerians and the teeming youths are well catered and well housed, it would go a long way to solving our problems.”