Federal, state and local governments in Nigeria have been urged to invest more in real estate; because the sector retains the potential to create thousands of jobs annually and help ameliorate Nigeria’s perennial unemployment scourge.
Founder of GtextHomes, one of Nigeria’s leading real estate companies, Dr. Stephen Akintayo, made the call in Lagos on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, ahead of a global property brokers conference scheduled for May 1 at Landmark, Oniru, in Lekki Lagos.
Akintayo added that the housing sector is among leading job providers in most developed countries.
He said the Nigerian government must take a bold step to tap into this sector in order to create employment for the mass of the citizenry.
Akintayo revealed that GtextHomes has lined up seasoned real estate brokers from around the world; including Ryan Serhant, and leadership coach, Dr John Maxwell, to educate Nigerian youth on how to benefit from the global multi-billion dollar property industry.
He said that the firm is open to partnering with relevant stakeholders to provide affordable housing and sustainable employment opportunities for individuals.
“Massive investment in real estate will help reduce unemployment in this country. It will solve issues of security as more people can learn to know they can make it legitimately.
“That is why the government at all levels in Nigeria must look in this direction because it has the potential for creating thousands of jobs annually.
“As a company, we believe this conference will empower at least 12,000 people in terms of job provision.
“We are looking at about another 15,000 people being empowered through what we are doing. We are hoping that the number of brokers created through this initiative will get to 100,000 in five years time.
“To achieve this, we have lined up Ryan Serhant, who is the number one property broker in the world. He is based in New York and has done over $4bn in property sales.
“We hope that at this conference where interested participants can register via http://www.gpbconference.com, many unemployed Nigerians; especially the youth will learn a lot from the likes of Dr. John Maxwell, a leadership coach, to fully tap into the goldmine that the real estate sector is,” Akintayo said.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate currently stands at 33.3 per cent – the second highest in the world – according to latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The figure is projected to rise further, analysts have said, due to government’s reluctance to diversify the Nigerian economy away from the energy sector.
Source :NAN