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MEDIA CHAT WITH AYODEJI PAUL OLUGBADE AT BUILDMACEX NIGERIA 2016
The last day of the most influential event of the construction industry of Nigeria, BUILDMACEX NIGERIA 2016 was generally blissful as key stakeholders, exhibitors and visitors were very excited with the success of the event. While the local and international exhibitors were gathering up the remains of their products in happy moods of satisfaction, Buildace Magazine Team caught up with Mr. Ayodeji Paul Olugbade the Managing Director of Atlantic Exhibition, the company behind this incredible annual event; we asked him just four important questions.
Enjoy the interview!
Let’s meet you sir.
I am Ayodeji Paul Olugbade the Managing Director of Atlantic Exhibition, the organizers of this year Buildmacex Nigeria Fair, by the grace of God we are rounding up now the fourth edition, looking out for the fifth edition in 2017 so far we thank God for this year as its much more successful than last year and we also believe that next year will be greater. What we will be looking out for in 2017; the era we are now is the era of new technology which I think is necessary for our built environment in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, our built environment needs new technology to forecast the life span of buildings, the risk on buildings, the effect of energy on those buildings and how it should properly be constructed.
So in 2017 we will be looking out for more of these manufacturers on what will actually change our infrastructure in Nigeria so that we can have better and European standard of structure buildings and built environment, we are going to reach out to many other parts, Nigeria, Turkey, India, US and UK we have them all this year but next year we are going to be having more of other people so that we can have varieties of products that will change the face of our infrastructure.
What are the economic advantages of Buildmacex to Nigeria?
You know we organize exhibitions and with our exhibition we deal directly with the manufacturers, the CEOs of these organizations and for the CEOs we tried our best as representatives and ambassadors to Nigeria in the business platform to encourage and attract them to the Nigeria market and let them know the promising and emerging opportunities that we have in Nigeria. That is why we were able to bring them here.
Most of them are not just here to exchange goods for cash, they are also here to explore this country to see how establishment can be done and many of them from our previous events have been able to established here, adding to the value of the economy of this country by providing employment opportunities and also enlighten us with the new technology.
What solutions would you suggest for the challenges in the Nigerian built environment?
Thank you! I think why we have challenges and difficulties is we don’t get support for our built environment where we just struggle to put up structures, if we have support like there is a way that people can get loan easily, mortgage, facilities and things like that, it will encourage people to stage perfect structures and even our environment that government usually come up with for development, the way and manner that those environments are given to the contractors and the challenges the contractors face to manage the cost to work with them has been a very serious issues that we should be able to look at. Government should mount pressure and control so that we can have safety.
How do you see the government policies for the Nigerian building sector so far?
Policies for government; to me they are gradually getting it and putting things in place, you can’t get it also within a day. But what are we getting from the law enforcement agencies that we have? They are the areas that we need to look at when measures and policies are being put in place, are they putting things right? You know, in a situation where the law enforcement thinks you can always have your way and people will not get things right, we have to actually look at that aspect and flush out every wrong or bad person among them in order to set things right.
Change in Nigeria if I have to tell you, I will have to actually flush out and filter our law enforcement agencies to ensure the bad ones are out, that is only the change we can make. There is no policy that can stand if the law enforcement agencies are not doing things properly, it’s when they do and people are seeing that there is no way you will have your way out that things will be done right.
Would you say our construction industry is doing well?
In this event we were able to bring together the industry’s professional bodies to educate people, talking of the interiors designers, builders, architects, quantity surveyors etc. so we believe that the industry is actually working because we are seeing Real Estate Agencies now that are working and expecting people to come and engage them on the mortgage aspect of it, so gradually its booming. My encouragement for government is they should help us look at urban areas where there are old buildings that I expect them to take over for some times, not taking over from the right people that own the buildings but take over those buildings do better or more stories and give back to the right owners of those properties and the rest can be used for government general purpose, that will not only make life easy but also change our infrastructure and provide developments.
Thank you very much for your time Sir!
Thank you for having me.
