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Akin Opatola is the immediate past President, FIABCI-Nigeria and senior partner at Olawale Jordan Company, a firm of estate surveyors and valuers with offices in Lagos and Abuja.
FIABCI is derived from a French coinage, Fédération Internationale des Administrateurs de Biens Conseils Immobiliers, which means International Real Estate Federation.
In this interview with Daily Sun, he opened up on his drive to attract international FIABCI Congress to Nigeria and other matters.
Why do you push for more membership of FIABCI, as the association is not really known in Nigeria?
The Nigerian real estate industry is getting international recognition, so to make the Nigerian real estate profession more visible within the global family and finance family, we pushed through FIABCI.
We do this by bringing international congresses to the country. And how do we ensure that when the world thinks about the future of African real estate, Nigeria is part of that conversation, not merely as an observer, but as a contributor and a leader? That is the opportunity before us today.
What lesson did you learn as President of FIABCI?
When I was coming in two years ago, one of the things that I wanted to present on the table was visibility. FIABCI Nigeria has been in existence for close to 53 years. Well, a lot of people don’t know us, so we’re talking among ourselves. We’re doing business among ourselves, and we said, “No, it wasn’t good enough.”
So, luckily for us, we got the rights to hold the World Congress, and we went right to the top. We wanted to bring in Dangote. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get him, but we were able to get the President of the Federal Republic, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Last minute, too, because it fell on a public holiday. He was in Bourdillon, but he now said no. He asked the Minister of Defence to represent him.
We had three Ministers, and of course, the Lagos State Governor was there. So that was one of the things that I wanted to show: visibility.
You brought the World Congress to Nigeria. What is the gain?
Let people know us. Let’s grow membership. Let’s begin to engage with the government. The World Congress hosting, which was successful, gave us the opportunity to meet with a lot of these policymakers and government officials, because real estate is not done in isolation.
We see a lot of developers amongst us. Most of the time, they like to build estates, and we say no. They should be building communities. That is why we engaged the government. So, even in terms of infrastructural development, they can benchmark with FIABCI members.
We have the reach. We get to travel. We have webinars with our international colleagues. So, global best practice is something that is conversant with us. So, we can always say that at the forefront of government officials. That’s one.
Two is, in the next few weeks, we’ll be off to Taichung, Taiwan. The last four trips that we’ve done, the FIABCI members have not gone alone. In Taichung, we’ll be going with Ministry of Housing officials and the Ministry of Lands in Lagos State.
It’s a fantastic one because if you put it on ChatGPT, you see that Taiwan has a very strong land administration. So, we thought it wise: let’s not talk to ourselves alone. So, we invited them, and they were very happy.
Next week, Tuesday, all of us are going to the embassy to get our visas. So, we will have a mini roundtable, Ministry of Land and Administration officials, Lagos State, and their counterparts in Taiwan. I know there will be best practice discussions, and they will come back and put a lot of little things in place, whether it takes two years or three years. They will always attribute it to FIABCI Nigeria’s invitation.
That’s one. Two is, in March, we had the UN Spring Symposium organised by FIABCI.
How did the visit to China impact Nigerian real estate?
We went with four members of the Federal Ministry of Housing in Abuja. ESV Collins Alabi, who is a director of lands, was a principal member of that team. He led the team of four people to the UN General Assembly.
It was a good one. The discussion was on affordable housing. Of course, they went back. They presented what they learned to the Minister. They’ve had the Abuja International Show. They’ve also invited FIABCI for that visibility.
I’m happy that within the two-year turnout, we’ve been able to put it. And the government, they now know us.
Last year, in December, Lagos State usually had their real estate marketplace that takes place in a hotel. For the first time, Lagos State wrote to us and said we should have them invite international players. I was able to bring about 18 to 19 of our colleagues internationally and within Africa, and even the governor, in his speech, also laid credence to that.
So, that is one thing, if I have to touch on it, that we’ve been able to do excellently well, and I also allow my successor to also play on those policies, so that we are not just being real estate professionals, developers, architects, developers, financiers alone. Real estate is an ecosystem. We need to bring everybody, in fact, even the government and the policymakers, together.
What challenges did you face in your tenure as President?
You know, when you come in, you think two years is very long before you see Jack Robinson. See me now. Two years has gone so, so fast. Honestly, I thought time was my friend. That I would be able to do so many things.
That’s one. Two, leadership has also taught me a few things. You are only as good as the executives that you carry along. So, if your executives are not strong, not willing to support, there is also a challenge there.
So, sometimes, looking back with retrospect, I’m thinking that, okay, maybe if we can also expand the years, expand the time. Maybe if you have seen membership, if you have seen leadership, instead of two years, maybe three years or four.
Do you think membership of FIABCI Nigeria measures with that of other nations?
We are less than 80. If we are less than 80, an association that is over 50 years old is not good enough.
So, as it’s rotating like that, very soon we will not have people at the helm of affairs. So, maybe three years, maybe four years, then we come in.
That’s one. Two is, even though I made some mistakes in speaking to so many elders in the leadership of FIABCI, you know you cannot keep on hearing from everybody. As a President, you have to make up your own mind. Also, I know I made some mistakes in that regard, in that sense.
Also, in hosting the World Congress, we’ve never done it before. It was a first time and a meeting event. So, looking back, we’ve experienced. I’m happy that we held the World Congress. But I know there are some huge lessons learned, which we’ve also documented, both financially in the audited account and also in a lessons-learned document, which we pass on from Exco to Exco.
So, those are a few things that enable us to learn over the years.
