General News
Real Estate Can Unlock Africa’s Industrial Future, Says Hall 7 Boss at AIHS 2025
By Iyojo Ameh
The Managing Director of Hall 7 Construction, Mr. Olayinka Braimoh, has called on African governments and real estate stakeholders to unlock the continent’s industrial potential by transforming dormant land assets into productive capital through effective land reforms.
Mr.
He decried the massive accumulation of untitled property across Nigeria and other African countries, which he described as “dead capital” real estate assets that hold no financial value due to lack of proper documentation.
“We have properties across Nigeria that are not titled. These are assets worth hundreds of millions, yet owners can’t use them to raise funds or invest,” Braimoh said. “PwC estimates that Nigeria alone has between $300 billion and $900 billion worth of dead capital. That’s a massive missed opportunity for industrial growth.”
According to him, the inability to use land as a financing tool severely limits Africa’s capacity to drive large-scale industrial and economic transformation. He stressed that unless urgent reforms are carried out, real estate will remain underutilized in solving Africa’s economic challenges.
Braimoh identified digitalization of land registries as a key step to enabling efficient, transparent, and accessible property documentation. He noted that only a few states like Lagos, Rivers, and the FCT had made progress in this area, but even those systems, he said, were still riddled with inefficiencies and bottlenecks.
“In some states, the process doesn’t even exist. That alone discourages investment and kills the potential of real estate to power Africa’s industrialization,” he said.
He cited the Federal Capital Territory’s Accelerated Housing Development Programme, which has produced over 300,000 housing units in the last two decades—many of which still lack title documentation, making them economically inactive.
Braimoh urged Nigerians to start viewing housing not only as a place to live but also as a strategic economic asset that can unlock funding, drive enterprise, and contribute to national development.
“We live in homes worth N500 million, but we can’t access N10 million in capital because these assets are not titled. That’s the paradox,” he said.
He challenged government regulators to streamline the process of property titling and eliminate bureaucratic delays that frustrate genuine developers and investors.
The Hall 7 boss also noted that with the recent economic rebasing, the real estate sector now contributes over ₦41.3 trillion to Nigeria’s GDP, making it the third-largest contributor.
While this growth is partly due to the naira devaluation, he warned that the difficult economic environment in recent years has hit real estate developers hard, with rising construction costs and shrinking profit margins.
“The last two years have been tough. Many developers have lost significant investments. We need policies that support and protect both investors and developers,” he concluded.
