During a 2012 interview, the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Rajo Fashola put forward a plea to those in the construction field about the proper disposal of their leftover building materials—for instance, not pouring the sand and silt or toxic paint chemicals down the drainage—as part of a statewide campaign to clean up the state. It was quite obvious from public response that many were aware that such activities were not acceptable; evidence of a lack of information infrastructure.

Right now, construction has ceased in a small suburban estate in Mende, Maryland because a bride that connects the residents with the rest of the city is on the verge of collapse and cannot withstand the weight of the trucks ferrying rocks, quartz, cement, workers and other building materials to existing sites in the estate. The bridge which was built shoddily in the eighties did not anticipate the population explosion that would occur in Lagos and the stress that would fall on infrastructural resources like roads, access to power, water and safety; not to talk of a small innocuous bridge in the middle of the city’s mainland.

It is no news that Nigeria has an infrastructure problem. What does that mean to the real estate sector? Especially if it is sitting on untapped opportunities to elevate the nation’s economy to be among the top 20 economies in the world in terms of growth in the national GDP by the year 2020?

Infrastructure is both tangible and intangible. There are those structural systems that make up the basic social amenities of shelter, water, clean air, transportation and general safety. There are also those of human infrastructure, in the dissemination and use of necessary information to conduct activities that promote good living. Where there is a dearth of these—for the real estate sector–you end up with results like the current deficit of 17 million in housing.  And we at 3Invest want to make a concerted effort to change that

We have created a platform discuss these critical issues around the role infrastructure plays in the real estate sector. Join us October 2^nd – 3^rd at the 2014 Real Estate Unite Conference. The multi-tiered event—featuring an awards ceremony, industry-certified training sessions, a strategic conference of targeted sessions and engaging products and services exhibition—will gather stakeholders and policy makers to explore how we can ignite the F.I.R.E in Nigeria’s (and by extension, Africa’s) real estate sector.

Is it that simple that if we have good roads, we have better construction? Or is the issue a problem of policy infrastructure? How do we move forward from where we are, using best practices and lessons learned to enliven the industry with shared prosperity for all?

We know we are not the only ones with these questions because the hundreds of registered delegates and exhibitors; and activity of our esteemed sponsors indicate that they are on sore spot for many. We want change because that is the only way the sector can grow and be a dominant player in Nigeria’s transformation story.