PROPERTY NEWS

Nigeria loses a staggering N900 billion yearly in capital flight from foreign skilled labourers, it has been revealed.

Estate valuer and chairman, Messrs. Locke International Consultancy Limited, Mr. Gboyega Fatimilehin, who made disclosure in Lagos a week ago, called for urgent measures to address the development. He spoke during the formal opening of the "Diamond Estate," where his firm partnered with the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to deliver the 600-unit scheme.

According to him, a persisting shortage of local skilled artisans (particularly tillers, bricklayers and masons) has made developers and contractors to resort to importing such skilled hands from "as near as our West African neighbours and as far as East and Central Africa where technical education has been given the pride of place."

He emphasised that artisans are vital as they make housing delivery efficient and of high standard. Fatimilehin added that the sub-sector creates employment in most economies (employing about 20 percent of the working population), re-inflates the economy during periods of recession and helps to generate wealth (that is quick to reach a vast majority of the population).

'However, this group is most endangered in Nigeria as they lack technical education and experience to recommend them for the work. Formal training is short on quality and quantity thereby creating a skill gap that is indeed very huge," the realtor lamented.

He noted that the vacuum created is then filled by foreigners/immigrants, who he estimates in excess of one million.

"This means that over one million of our youths, who should have been gainfully employed are displaced,' he stated.

Attempting an analysis of the situation, he went on, " I will like to show the downside of this on the entire economy by this little calculation to stimulate our awareness. If we pay these odd one million skilled workers an average of N3,000 a day it means we pay them N3 billion daily and if they work for 300 days in a year as they all go home at the end of the year for long vacation we would have paid them N900 billion that year.

"If they remit 50 percent of their income to their countries they would have remitted N450 billion from the economy which is the equivalent of $3 billion yearly.

"The question really is: How is this being financed? This comes from the Nigerians in Diaspora remitting their own money home and mainly ear-marked for investment in housing. These remittances should have stimulated real economic development in Nigeria as in other countries like India but now just pass through our land and then take their flight to other countries.

"This trend has to be stemmed. This can only be done by deliberate policy of laying required emphasis on technical and vocational education. We must re-open all technical and vocational schools in all the state of the federation and with the help of Federal Government re-equipping these schools. This trend will have been turned round and we can also be net exporter for such labour to earn foreign exchange."

On the new estate, he commended government for involving private sector players such as his outfit.

"We thank the FHA for giving us the opportunity to make this humble contribution to the housing sector in Nigeria. The well-developed structure and culture of involving the private sector in their delivery of housing to the public especially affordable housing such as this are quite commendable," he said.

Fatimilehin thanked FHA staffers for being helpful and focused in the course of the delivery of the project. He however regretted that the sector was still bedevilled with challenges as land availability, high cost of building materials, undeveloped mortgage system and inadequate man power to make delivery efficient and of high standard.

Fatimilehin’s colleagues in the construction industry have likewise been debating the implications of the shortage of local skilled artisans.

A quantity surveyor, Mr. Jide Oke, who said it took his team over four weeks to bring in artisans from Lome in Togo and Cotonou in Benin Republic, noted that the search was sacrificial as failure was not an option.

He said, "We knew that if we did not make the extra effort of going out of the country, we might not be able to deliver the job to the specification earlier agreed on. The dearth of skilled artisans is really affecting us in the industry and something needs to be done to stop it."

Officials of UACN Property Development Company Plc (UPDC) disclosed that in the course of renovating the "Festac ’77 Hotel" in Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos a couple of years ago, they took several trips to Asia to secure the services of skilled tillers, with implications of the overall project cost.

A UPDC source said, "We were building an international standard hotel and felt that we could not afford to compromise on quality in terms of construction methods and materials. Though the venture was quite expensive, but it was worth every kobo at the end of the day because the output turned out to be fantastic."

However, recent years have seen the emergence of a number of attempts to address the seemingly unwholesome development.

For instance, the Federal Works, Housing and Urban Development Ministry inaugurated an institution dedicated to training craftsmen. The school emerged from the ruins of the dilapidated structures of the old Works Ministry along Harvey Road in Yaba, Lagos.

Similarly, the Lagos State Government established an Artisans Skill Development Centre at the Ikeja Central Business District (CBD) to train industry technicians to attain the stus of professionals.

Similarly, the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB) has offered to improve artisans’ skills through regular training programmes, saying that it would admit them into a specially created membership cadre while providing a curriculum for their training scheme. The body, in conjunction with the Chief Newton Jibunoh Foundation (CNJF), has disclosed plans to establish an institution of learning to produce skilled personnel.

The National Association of Engineering Craftsmen (NAEC), an affiliate of the Nigerian of Engineers (NSE), has a similar training programme.

The Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) some years ago attached some 500 artisans to the state-owned polytechnic for training in carpentry, bricklaying, electrical works and plumbing to meet its manpower requirements.