Alex Enumah in Abuja 

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede on Wednesday, said that the issue of money laundering is very rampant in the real estate sector of the nation’s economy.

He said to this extent, the anti-graft agency has set up a team that will begin to visit all the estates across Nigeria to know who owns what.

Speaking at a one-day Policy Dialogue on the Critical Issues Affecting Nigeria’s Real Estate Ecosystem, the EFCC boss stated that most estates in the country were built with funds stolen by public officials, adding that they abandon the property when they leave office or no longer have access to public funds.

The event, which held in Abuja, was an initiative of the Law Corridor.

“By virtue of the empirical evidence we have gathered and some of the things we have seen, statistics and reports, we discovered that the issue of money laundering is very rampant among estate developers, extremely rampant.

“And you know what we have been able to gather is that most of these estates are funded by civil servants who have stolen money. So the moment they leave public service, the money is no longer coming. So the developer is now looking for investors to support them to complete the project,” he added.

While stating that the real estate sector is one of the key areas the government is looking up to for rapid development of the nation’s economy, Olukoyede called for a change of attitude, observing that the major bane of the sector is the poor compliance to rules and regulations as well as what appears to be an “all-comers affairs” nature of the sector.

The anti-corruption czar, who called for a thorough sanitation of the sector, advised estate developers to always carry out due diligence on investors as well as property owners, to avoid being used as a channel for money laundering.

Besides, he urged them to endeavour to tidy their records and also pay their taxes as at when due, as no one would be spared for violating the law, adding that the commission had already obtained about 15 temporary forfeiture of some properties suspected to be from proceed of fraud and corruption.

“Don’t forget the principle of accessory before and after the fact. So, if somebody steals money, uses it to buy property from you and trades that money to you, we will recover it from you. Yes, we will recover it because you can’t sit on the proceed of crime. The moment we establish it and prove it to you that this money was stolen, we will recover it from you, so you have to go after the person who has bought the property from you to take your property back but we will recover the money from you,” Olukoyede said.

Meanwhile, the anti-graft agency boss decried the high interest rate on bank loans, stressing that it would be nearly impossible for any developer to run real estate businesses on such exorbitant cost.

While he called on the government, as well as the banks to provide one-digit interest rate loan for developers so as to meet the housing needs of Nigeria, Olukoyede urged developers to constitute a pressure group to push for their interest as well as constitute a taskforce that would develop a comprehensive register of real estate operators in the country.

Earlier, the Practice Group Lead, Real Estate, Construction and Infrastructure of the Law Corridor, Mr Ayokunle Erin, had said that the policy dialogue was put in place to herald evolution of Nigeria real estate ecosystem with a view to make the sector a major driver of Nigeria’s economy.

According to the legal practitioner, the real estate sector bears more than just concrete structures and land registries but it is an economic power house that directly influences urban development, job creation, wealth distribution and social stability.

Erin revealed that Nigeria’s current housing deficit stood at between 17 to 20 million housing units with a required annual delivery of 700,000 units to meet the demand.

He, however, said that output unfortunately falls drastically with Abuja having only about 5,000 new units constructed in 2024, to satisfy less than 10 per cent of the needs in the FCT.

According to him, the gaps reflected deep rooted policy failure, regulatory lapses and legal ambiguities that continue to embolden fraudsters, quacks and unlicensed agents.

He therefore called on stakeholders in the real estate sector to act with clarity, courage, and coordination that would shape the landscape of Nigerian real estate and redefine what is possible for communities and Nigeria as a country.

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