Information and Communication Technology Gives Distinct Character to Real Estate

Phyllis Okeke tells Clifford Agugoesi information and communication technology is redefining real estate

GutsyPen4ICTD: What is the underlying philosophy behind the Wealth Forum organized by your company?

Phyllis Okeke: The underlying philosophy is to substantially reduce the epidemic of wealth truncation and erosion prevalent among wealthy heirs, their successors and businesses. To promote a sustained habit of Generational Wealth and Succession Planning in Nigeria. Our experience has shown that Nigerian-grown businesses stand a better chance of cross-generational success if progenitor entrepreneurs device strategies to bequeath wealth to their offsprings, through early preservation planning, structured investment and philanthropy. Take for example, some of Nigeria’s wealthy people, including Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, Paschal Dozie and Mike Adenuga, who have not only  created wealth, invested and are successfully passing it on through their various foundations, through their children co-managing with them and also by going to the stock market.

GutsyPen4ICTD: Your core competencies are in consulting, real estate and investment. How has information and communication technology (ICT) impacted your group’s business and fortunes?

PO: The world is a global village today, courtesy of the impact of information and communication technology (ICT),  which has largely disrupted the way people  live, work and play as well as the way businesses are  formed  and run. For us at Zela Group, ICT has modified  Information dissemination and customer engagement, through our website and our online presence and at a budget friendly terms.  Our social media presence, for example,  serves to put us at the global marketplace and use of e-payment channels have not only speedified transaction times, but equally positively impacted our personnel and corporate safety and security, when compared with the pestle and mortar approach of our forebears.

GutsyPen4ICTD: How has your background in banking, technology and diplomatic service affected your real estate business?

Real Estate thrives on your knowledge, integrity and the type of contacts you have in your network. There is this saying that one’s network determines one’s networth.  Having spent years in the aforementioned professional fields, one comes away with loads of contacts that lead to investment in Real Estate, and naturally, people deal with whom they trust. It becomes interesting, because, we deal with clients who know for a fact that Real Estate is “The Real” investment for Legacy-building and mostly form part of assets willed to the next generation. Again, the central role of information and communication technology, in facilitating these exchanges, cannot be overemphasized.  Our experience in these fields is a plus for our businesses as we seek to touch lives through them. You have followed our Wealth Creation programmes and could see from the configuration of our resource persons that the import of these diverse professional backgrounds has not been lost  on us.

GutsyPen4ICTD: At your Wealth Forum last April, one takeaway by participants is the optimism within real estate circles that property values tend to appreciate every year.  To what extent do you think real estate could prove a solution to an economy in recession such as is currently experienced in Nigeria?

PO: Real Estate does not operate in a vacuum; it reflects the general economic trend. Current environment requires consistent raising of the bar on the skills of the Real estate consultant. It calls for true entrepreneurship, extreme professionalism, great sphere of influence, good business background and perfect timing. Again, you could see there is no way the pervasive role of ICT as a business enabler is obscured. Having said that, Nigeria’s  Minister of Finance  Kemi Adeosun, at a recent event, spoke of the Federal Government working with the private sector to provide over 400,000 housing units in different locations of the country. This will prove a major injection into the economy and stimulate different ancillary services and sectors of the economy such as ICT, amongst others.  Investors with robust portfolio also see this time as an opportunity to come into the country for various other real estate investments like malls, agricultural settlements and industrial real estate with a long-term plan of 5 to 10 years.  How relevant would these investments be without ICT infrastructure and tools being available, accessible and affordable? Your guess is as good as mine.

GutsyPen4ICTD: How much of wealth truncation do you think is happening in Nigeria, in particular and Africa in general and how have your seminars served to arrest the epidemic as it were?

PO: This is like 75 per cent of all the great wealth of individual and corporation.  Research has shown that 70 per cent of family wealth is lost by the end of the 2^nd generation and 90 per cent by the end of the 3^rd generation. Very poor statistics in general. The Wealth Forum by Zela has been holding various talks and seminars to provide professional advice together with our partners. We have another one coming up… more details will be provided, so wealth progenitors and persons intending to CREATE, INVEST and PASS ON WEALTH, should watch this space.  Again as you may have discovered, many ICT heavy-weights like Airtel  have started showing interest in these programmes, because of the huge window of opportunities they open up for their businesses.

GutsyPen4ICTD: You counsel that wealth progenitors at both the individual and corporate levels must shoulder the responsibility of putting in place, a litigation proof and a financial structure to pass on wealth to the next generation.  How critical is the role of ICT in all this?

PO: ICTs have come to play a critical role in documentation, security and record preservation where you have varied and alternate options on storage, accessibility and flexibility. So, yes, ICT is part of the equation and will remain so, going into the future.

GutsyPen4ICTD: To what extent are you applying social media in your marketing efforts and how effective have these been?

PO: Together with our partners, social media is one of our effective tools in marketing our properties, Consulting- Marketpro Marketing & Sales Training, and The Wealth Forum by Zela. Our target audience are on these various platforms; LinkedIn, Facebook, Whatsapp and email marketing, among others.