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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Economy & Trade

Opatola Urges FIABCI-Nigeria to Deepen Government Ties and Expand Membership

From ThisDay · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources New plan
  • Former FIABCI-Nigeria president Akin Opatola urged the chapter’s incoming leadership to expand membership and deepen ties with government.
  • He said hosting the FIABCI World Congress raised the Nigerian chapter’s profile and connected it with policymakers and international real estate professionals.
  • FIABCI-Nigeria plans to visit Taichung, Taiwan, with Nigerian housing officials to study land administration and exchange ideas with Taiwanese counterparts.

Akin Opatola says FIABCI-Nigeria’s next leadership must turn the visibility gained during his two-year tenure into stronger government engagement and broader membership.

The immediate past president said the Nigerian chapter had operated for more than five decades but remained little known beyond its professional circle. Hosting the FIABCI World Congress gave it an opportunity to reach policymakers and international real estate stakeholders.

We wanted to bring in Aliko Dangote. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get him, but we were able to get the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

— Akin OpatolaOpatola described the chapter’s effort to raise the profile of its World Congress.

Opatola said the chapter had hoped to bring in business leader Aliko Dangote for the event but instead secured the attendance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s representative. The president was in Barcelona and could not attend because the congress coincided with a public holiday, while the minister of defence, three other ministers and the Lagos State governor attended.

He said the event helped FIABCI-Nigeria build relationships with government officials. “Real estate is an ecosystem. We need to bring everybody together, in fact, even the government and policymakers,” he said.

Real estate is an ecosystem. We need to bring everybody together, in fact, even the government and policymakers.

— Akin OpatolaHe explained why FIABCI-Nigeria wants closer involvement from public officials.

The chapter plans to travel to Taichung, Taiwan, with officials from the Federal Ministry of Housing and the Lagos State Ministry of Lands. Nigerian and Taiwanese officials are expected to hold a mini-roundtable on land administration and best practices.

Opatola also pointed to a UN Spring Symposium on affordable housing, organised by FIABCI in March. Four Federal Ministry of Housing officials, led by Director of Lands Collins Alabi, attended and later presented their findings to the housing minister. He said Lagos State also invited FIABCI-Nigeria to attract international participants to its real estate marketplace last December, where the chapter brought about 18 or 19 professionals from Africa and elsewhere.

We thought it wise: let’s not talk to ourselves alone.

— Akin OpatolaHe described the decision to include Nigerian officials in international engagement on land administration.
About this summary

Originally published by ThisDay in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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