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Stories by Maduka Nweke
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Smith Ezenagu is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Esso Properties Limited. He inherited his real estate genes from his father who was a property merchant of repute, with many categories of clients on his list across different African countries. A philanthropist, realtor and founder of Esso Properties Limited, Ezenagu is a graduate of Business Administration from Ecole Superieure Sainte Felicite University, Cotonou, in the Republic of Benin.
In this interview, Ezenagu spoke on the state of developers as the country’s economic crunch worsens. He acknowledged that the operating space has become too toxic for many developers, resulting in not meeting clients’ expectations and eventually quitting. He observed that over 80 per cent dependence on foreign building materials is crippling activities in the sector. He also listed dollar scarcity as another stumbling block.
Navigating inflation and rising costs of building materials
Rising cost of materials is a major problem in the real estate industry. Anywhere you turn now you see developers pulling out of sites. Everyone is waiting and praying to see what happens. If nothing is done to curb this and get things to a level of stability, we would face a very major crisis in the industry soon. I started a project in the Epe area of Lagos, October last year and I bought a trip of sand for sand-filling at the cost of N37,000. Three months after in January, I started a project in one of my estates in Ibeju Lekki, Emerald Garden Estate, and I bought sand at the rate of N90,000. That’s almost 200 per cent increase in price in just three months. This is the type we have not experienced before. It’s a major problem that must be tackled head long; else, there would be serious problem. I can imagine developers that have collected money from clients with the hope that they would build and deliver in 2024. If you took money when sand was N37,000 per trip and now it’s N90,000, that means you may have to spend over 100 per cent more than you budgeted to complete the project. It’s a challenging situation and something needs to be done as soon as possible.
Effects of unstable foreign exchange market on your operations
The free fall of naira is affecting everyone and everything but we are hoping to come out of it soon. I also hope that in days to come our dependence on imported materials and stuff should be revisited so that we can begin to mitigate some of these effects on the cost of living. Imagine the shock when you bought cement at N6,000 today and go back the next week to hear that the price is now N8,500 per bag. Personally, I have had to halt a lot of projects so that we can watch what happens. We are keeping hope alive seeing that the government is doing something about it and we hope they get a solution soonest.
As a nation, I believe we need to do something to reduce our dependence on imported materials. Our nation should not be a dumping ground. The funny thing is that majority of these imported materials can be produced in Nigeria and exported abroad. The 70 per cent you quoted in your question is actually too conservative; it is actually over 80 per cent because we import over 80 per cent of our building and construction materials. Imagine our doors, for instance. We use largely foreign doors. We export the timbers abroad, they develop the timber and produce doors, then we import into Nigeria to use. It’s funny. How can we be a nation that exports raw materials and import finished products? All we need to do is to make the environment right for local industries to spring up and begin to cover these gaps.
Impact of high cement cost on your business
Cement is a very important ingredient in construction, hence, whatever happens to cement goes on to affect the entire real estate and construction industry. Apart from that, hardship is high and a lot of the guys on the street depend largely on the construction industry. Construction sites all over Nigeria employ a major percentage of these guys and with developers pulling out of sites, it means there is no job for them. Once there is no job for these guys, idle hands could be the devil’s workshop. Everybody is talking about cement alone but it’s not just cement because we have other materials like rod, sand, etc. In fact, if nothing is done to curb the current prices of building materials in Nigeria, we might get to a point where shelter will become luxury and not basic necessity. Apart from government stepping in like they are doing to curb these things, I believe this is the time we explore alternative buildings like wooden houses and others.
Awele Residential Estate and restoration of the ancient eastern aura
I am from the eastern part of Nigeria and whenever I visit the East and look at the kind of estates we are building, I realise that much more still needs to be done. We have very few estates and even the few we have are so normal, just the house and all. So, I decided to create the kind of estate that people will travel from a distance, even the diaspora, to come and see. Second, there are things associated with the easterners. We have our unique architecture, unique style, unique taste and our way of defining luxury. So, while developing the concept of the estate, we decided to align it with our definition of luxury – hence restoring that ancient eastern aura. What we want to achieve in Awele Residential is a perfect blend of modern luxury and culture. It is a very unique concept and the first of its kind in Nigeria. Anambra State is a take-off point for the Awele Residential Estate but it is not a project for Anambra State alone. We intend to have Awele in other eastern states, including Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo.
Amenities and facilities in Awele Residential Estate
In Awele Residential, our key focus includes the Igbo pride, modern luxury, green spaces and community centres. We have residential space, commercial space and recreational areas. We will create rain water harvesting technology, which is one of the known practices in ancient eastern Nigeria for community use. Some of our buildings will have green roofs to help us achieve a completely healthy luxury living space. We will also create a strong sense of community by including features like farm market, community gardens, pedestrian friendly streets, well lit walking paths, community pool, fitness centres, nursery and day care centres. To celebrate our culture, we will have features like community theatre for weekend cultural performances, museum and art galleries in the most luxury and modern way possible. In Igboland, we like open space for evening friendly sit outs and we will have a botanical garden for evening sit outs, a mediation garden and sports facilities in place. So, Awele Residential is a place built for the people who have taste for luxury in the eastern style. Our green roof, solar system, green streets are all carefully designed to help achieve environmental and energy efficient standards.
Target investors for Awele Residential Estate
Awele is built for anybody who wants to live above average. It is true that easterners have a culture that celebrates work because we are the hardest workers on this continent. That’s why we also play hard. So we want to achieve a relaxing, healthy, luxury community for the upper class, the Agba Ballers. We accommodate those looking for affordable housing with other average properties we have in the market like Summerview Estate, etc., but Awele Residential is for the Odogwu class. Everything we are planning to build in Awele will only be made possible with the use of technology. We have a feature called virtual inspection in Awele which enables those in the diaspora, whether United States of America, United Kingdom or Canada, to inspect Awele in real time and tour the estate as if they are there live.
We want our brothers and sisters spread all over the world to have an estate of pride where they can buy their properties and feel safe and proud, or buy some of the buildings that will be coming up in Awele and be able to bring back their friends and colleagues from any part of the world to come and experience. We have three purchase cycles for Awele Residential – pre-launch purchase that started on February 26 where we gave people the opportunity to purchase Awele at almost half the price for just a few plots before the launch, and the post-launch price, which takes effect immediately after the launch of the estate on March 23, 2024. In Awele Residential, class is important to us and we have created two classes or sections in the estate – the Odogwu plots (1000 square metres) are for the real ballers who desire more space to express their building designs and Ijele plots (500 square metres) which are for the Ijeles who are on their way to becoming Odogwus.
Ensuring transparency and trust in dealings with clients
We have been around for a number of years and we have a policy in Esso Properties that we only sell what we have. We have a reputation as an organisation and we are for sure the best real estate development company in south eastern Nigeria. The moment we launch our buildings for sale, we give our clients some form of guarantee. We are planning to partner with one of the major banks in Nigeria as our guaranteeing partner that holds the funds. Clients will pay to a designated account and the bank will release funds in tranches until we complete the building as promised. We created that to give our diaspora market some major form of guarantee and trust to know we will deliver on our promise.
Insecurity in the South East and Awele Residential estate
Awele residential will have 24/7 security both smart and others. In fact, security is one of the things that will be celebrated in Awele residential as this class of people that would live in the estate is more particular about security. Aside that, the South East is not as insecure as the social media makes it look. We just celebrated Christmas and we didn’t hear of casualties, despite the mass number of people that came in to celebrate Christmas. It is safe in the East. Also, we are Igbos and we believe so much in our homeland. We actually have a saying that, Aku lue uno, okwuo onye kpatara ya – which means, when wealth gets home, it will announce who owns it. No matter what happens, our home is our home and we cannot run away. I am calling on my brothers all over the world to bring our wealth home. It is safe here beyond what the social media shows us.
