Umar Abdullahi is the Chief Executive Officer, Cosgrove Smart Estate, a real estate development company. In this interview with FRANCIS KADIRI, he discusses why businesses must embrace innovation as a strategy to growth potential. Excerpts.
Cosgrove is about a year old. Would you say you have been able to meet your growth targets?
My first career experience completely won my heart for the real estate and construction industry. Immediately after graduating from the university, I got a job in a bank – FSB, now defunct, which was later acquired by Fidelity Bank through some merger during the 2005 banking reforms.
My interesting task at FSB was to manage real estate project portfolios as well as portfolios of investments in the construction industry. The task exposed me to the workings and importance of the industry, and I began to prepare myself to join an industry that I so much love and admired. I learnt a lot from that job because it exposed me to the knowledge of real estate development and management, and about the branches of the sector, meaning commercial real estate and residential estate development as well as the luxury and affordable aspects of the industry.
if I were at the FMBN, the first thing I would set to achieve is to approach the international stock market for funds. I could raise bonds to the tune of $2bn or more, equivalent to N700bn. Such an amount would create significant number of mortgages
The sector sparked my interest and I prepared to make a difference by being innovative. So, after a very resourceful period of about 10 years in the banking sector, a period during which I acquired a lot of knowledge, I pulled out in 2010 to become the pioneer Managing Director of Brains & Hammers, a real estate development company that has become a star-brand in the housing industry. After a successful tenure of nearly eight years, I decided to establish my own brainchild real estate organisation, Cosgrove, with a passion for distinction via innovation and professionalism, and that is exactly what you see we are achieving today.
if I were at the FMBN, the first thing I would set to achieve is to approach the international stock market for funds. I could raise bonds to the tune of $2bn or more, equivalent to N700bn. Such an amount would create significant number of mortgages
How far have you gone in terms of building innovative homes?
Look around this site, you can see our values of youth, professionalism and best practices. You will see that from their toes to their heads, and if you know the rules, you will agree with me that Cosgrove engineers and staff conform to all the rules of construction practice.
Because of the immense experience we have in the real estate and construction industry, we carefully selected outstanding professionals who constitute the Cosgrove teams. The teams consist of local and international experts who have what it takes to create innovation or to improve innovation. We are very particular about innovation because the team that leads a sector must be abreast of innovations and advancements in the sector.
We started two projects, which are now at various stages of completion: You can see the progress of this Wuye Cosgrove site. The second site is at Mabuchi, near Blue Cabana, just behind Wuse-2, and we have made progress that we are proud of.
It will interest you to know that we also have a third site at Guzape where we will also develop another first class super-smart estate. There are several future projects and continuous innovation being proposed by Cosgrove research and development department, and we are considering them.
By bringing the international and local expertise on board Cosgrove, we are able to develop a culture of professionalism that aims at innovation and transfer of technological advancements to the Nigeria real estate and construction industry. As a golden rule, we prioritise health and safety of staff.
Because we aim at innovation, we know we must be different. So, our construction method is quite different from what you would find elsewhere in this country.
What are the peculiarities of the fourth deal recently signed by Cosgrove in the FCT?
The deal involves the acquisition of 12 hectares of land in a very strategic location of the FCT; it is by the expressway opposite Ministers Hill, Maitama. It is a major deal inspired by the pressures we received from the public after our previous estates.
Cosgrove began operations about one year ago with the Wuye Cosgrove Smart Estate, which consists of over 160 smart homes, but it was sold out in three months because they are signature homes that showcased the latest designs and advancements in housing technology.
After selling the Wuye project, we still had alot of demand for more homes. So we embarked on a second project in Mabushi, near Blue Cabana, which was even sold out before we cleared the land.
Then we decided on the third project in Guzape, which has also been sold out.
Now, we have commenced the fourth estate project and we are happy that we will be providing more villas to those who want to live in homes of a great kind.
Cosgrove seems to have easy breakthrough with marketing its homes, what is the secret?
We give thanks to Almighty God. Our penchant for top quality and innovation works for us. These preferences are obvious in our housing designs and construction. Cosgrove does not compromise on getting the best professionals to handle our projects; we go for only the best hands. These choices have become obvious because they reflect on the homes we build. People want to avoid fraudsters who are in real estate sector to defraud unsuspecting home seekers.
I have been in the industry for over a decade and have delivered more than 10 estates. People are able to see and verify what we give them and they are very comfortable with the houses we have built. This is what we are enjoying.
At about a year old, Cosgrove has sold out nearly 300 homes. How did you get this done?
Cosgrove is 100 per cent indigenous to Nigerians, but it has joined the rank of organisations that understand the secrets of business success and sustaining the tempo of early success. By this, I mean we have a very busy research and development department that exists to study, think and propose new strategies and methods that you are not likely to find anywhere else. So, we devote a lot of funds to their foreign travels, seminars and interaction with housing research institutes and establishments in Nigeria and
overseas.
Our R&D staffs are abreast of advancements in innovation in various aspects of housing and construction such as automation, security, training, housing finance and others. So Cosgrove is committed to innovation, forward thinking and every new thing that is coming into the market space. You will agree that this is the internet age, there are no boarders anymore. So if something is invented in America today, you can find it in Spain or Nigeria as a result of the enabling environment created by technology. A point of note is that Cosgrove does not just want to transfer technology, we also aim to build upon it, we aim to improve it, and God is with us, and we are succeeding.
In addition, our hardware and software are very different. Cosgrove is the only indigenous company in Nigeria that is currently deploying the Building Information Modeling process in its projects, which cost a fortune, but it’s worth the fortune.
How would your organisation overcome the challenges of substandard building materials in the country?
As a corporate organisation that has penchant for only the best products, Cosgrove avoids middlemen and the public markets as much as possible. What this means is that we relate with only renowned manufacturers who supply us directly from their factories overseas. For example, we use only ready mix concrete from Lafarge, a French international brand remarkable for quality. We are also in partnership with Zeberced.
RMC is tested in the laboratory to ensure that it was mixed in perfect proportion. For example, if you want to buy 100 cubic meters of 25 grade concrete from Lafarge, you will get exactly that specification because the mix is super rich and in the exact proportion. We insist on this because you can hardly get this perfect mixture on your construction
site.
Secondly, we use only British Standard Steel for all our structural enforcements; we don’t use the common steel that you know. Without prejudice to developers who use local steel, I want to tell you that experts in the industry know the difference between BSS and other shades of steel. Because Cosgrove desires to maintain a standard, we decided to go the extra mile to get these
materials.
How can the National Housing Fund administered by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria improve?
The issue is that the turnaround time must first be increased. Secondly, the FMBN needs to improve its capital base. Frankly speaking, if I were at the FMBN, the first thing I would set to achieve is to approach the international stock market for funds. I could raise bonds to the tune of $2bn or more, equivalent to N700bn. Such an amount would create significant number of mortgages, thereby addressing the needs of Nigerians in need of shelter. Imagine that the sum of N700bn is invested into the property market in Nigeria; there will be significant financing that will trigger the progress we
need.
