Build or break: Unspoken rules that will decide Nigeria’s green building future

When a building collapses, it is never just bricks and beams that fail; it is an entire system: complacent regulators, corner-cutting developers, disengaged communities and financiers who look the other way.

This reality framed a landmark conversation hosted by BusinessDay’s Sustainable Building Conference 2025, gathering Nigeria’s leading voices across architecture, engineering, real estate finance and sustainability. Themed “Sustainable Practices and Financing Solutions for the Nigerian Construction Sector,” the central question was deceptively simple: How can Nigeria finally break the cycle of preventable building failure – and build to last in an age that demands climate-conscious urban growth?

The day’s answer, forged through frank disclosures and practical case studies, was clear: the problem is not a lack of expertise or good intentions. The gap is in trust, discipline, and the institutional backbone to enforce what we already know.

“If we build carelessly today, tomorrow’s leaders will inherit an expensive, inefficient, collapsing mess. Sustainability is not a slogan, it’s survival,” Kunle Adeyemi, vice president, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) Southwest, said in his opening remarks.

Read also: COMMUNIQUÉ: Powering Nigeria’s future from the ground up

The Builders Taking Control of Quality

Abubakar Sheriff, managing director of VAVA Projects Limited, gave the audience an insider’s look at what it means to run a modern Nigerian development company that refuses to compromise.

VAVA Projects, an offshoot of the renowned VAVA Furniture brand, has grown rapidly in four years, executing mid-to-high-end residential projects from Crystal Bay in Oniru to The Hezekiah Towers in Victoria Island, Jacinda Court in Lekki, and ultra-luxury units in Banana Island.

The secret? Control. VAVA owns its batching plants, operates four truck mixers with a combined 40-cubic-metre capacity, and runs an in-house Quality Assurance and Quality Control Department. Every concrete batch is tested daily to international standards.

“We do this because once you outsource your core materials, you surrender your reputation to third parties who do not carry your risk,” Abubakar told the room.

This rigorous approach, he argued, is the only way to secure buyer trust in a turbulent market where headlines of collapsed buildings routinely shake investor confidence.

The Hidden Weakness in the Design Room

While developers often get the blame for structural failures, the rot can begin on the architect’s drawing board.

Rita Bolusemihi (MNIA), an architect and managing consultant, head of projects at Wilmeb Nigeria Limited, dismantled the myth that good design ends with a beautiful rendering.

She detailed four chronic design-stage gaps that sabotage integrity long before the first brick is laid:

• Fragmented Collaboration: Architects working in silos without integrating input from structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) or civil engineers.
• Weak material specifications: Bills of quantities that specify generic concrete mixes but omit crucial grades, opening the door for site-level substitutions.
• Misjudged load assumptions: Failure to model real-world scenarios, like residents retrofitting balconies with oversized water tanks or heavy generators.
• Unrealistic imported materials: Drawings that specify finishes unavailable locally, forcing contractors to improvise when the supply chain fails.

“Sustainability is not abstract,” she said. “It is discipline. It is doing the basics right.”

Read also: Six years of enduring impact and the journey to the future

The Relentless Pressure of High Capital Costs

Even the best design can collapse under a weak financial plan. Few spelt this out more candidly than Muibi Kehinde Hammed, chairman and CEO of MKH Properties Limited.

No developer, he explained, intends to build unsafe structures. However, Nigeria’s sky-high cost of capital, loans at 33% to 38%, forces many to claw back costs wherever possible.

His company’s rule: raise a minimum of 30% equity before breaking ground. Secure reliable offtakers with realistic down payments, not speculative pledges. And never stack multiple sites on the back of wishful off-plan sales.

He exposed two blind spots that quietly bankrupt trust:

• Leakages and kickbacks: If project managers demand unofficial cuts, contractors recover that money by diluting quality.
• Paper-thin joint ventures: Developers who sign multiple JVs without genuine asset control often vanish once the landowner backs out, leaving buyers stranded.

“One solid, delivered project is worth more than five half-finished dreams,” he said pointedly.

Why Green Cement Must Become Standard, Not Optional

Emmanuel Ilaboya, head of Innovation and Product Development at Lafarge Africa PLC, widened the lens to the industry’s carbon footprint.

Cement is the second-most consumed substance on Earth, and the largest single source of embodied carbon in modern buildings. Lafarge’s EcoPlanet cement, launched in 2020, guarantees at least a 30% cut in CO₂ emissions compared to standard blends.

Yet Nigeria lags in agreed-upon standards for measuring these savings. Without trusted carbon calculators that track Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, developers cannot access the $10 billion in low-interest global climate finance reserved for green-certified projects.

“We are stuck with concrete for now,” Ilaboya admitted. “But we can’t be stuck with high-carbon concrete if we expect cheaper money.”

Rediscovering Bamboo and Indigenous Wisdom

While Lafarge pushes for greener concrete, Sanmi Olowosile, chairman of the Sustainable Green Environment Initiative, urged Nigeria to rediscover what it once knew so well: local materials.

For centuries, Nigerian builders used mud, timber and bamboo to erect structures that still stand today. Modern over-reliance on expensive imports has priced affordable housing out of reach.

“Bamboo’s tensile strength can match conventional steel when treated properly,” he noted. It regenerates in 18 months, absorbs carbon, creates jobs, yet no national policy exists to scale its use.

Read also: ‘Key to unlocking Nigeria’s vast economic potential lies in transformative not incremental reforms’

He pointed to Rwanda’s thriving Climate Fund as proof that intentional policy attracts billions in support.

“Our problem is not bamboo. It’s mindset. It’s policy that stays on paper,” he concluded.

Without Trust, There Is No Capital

Ogwara Chukwemeka Anthony, MD of Impact Nigeria Limited, sharpened the connection between professional standards and finance.

“Fancy project finance models mean nothing if trust is broken,” he said. When contractors overpromise and underdeliver, banks retreat.

His prescription: enforce compulsory Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Make training real, not box-ticking. Insist that banks demand evidence of CPD in their due diligence. And stop ignoring small rule breaches, like extra floors added illegally, which snowball into big collapses.

The Knowledge Dividend

Emmanuel Bamiyo Falude, director of Education & Certification at the Green Building Council Nigeria, put it bluntly: “Profit hides in what we know, not just what we build.”

Nigeria, he argued, must lift its collective technical base if green certification is to be more than a badge for the elite few.

He called on developers to become city-shapers, not plot-flippers, designing entire micro-cities, infrastructure included, as brands like Periwinkle Residences have done. And he challenged young professionals to invest in knowledge that attracts international work, rather than hoping local land speculation alone will secure their future.

Regulation, Insurance and the Role of Media

For veteran industry leader Chiedu Nweke, chairman/CEO, Periwinkle Residences Limited, the single biggest risk is not ignorance but weak enforcement.

“We have codes. We have standards. But no discipline to follow them,” he said. He urged BusinessDay and the wider media to keep convening these conversations and keep exposing malpractice.

Audience members weighed in, too: why not require insurance for every major building? Insurers, forced to monitor projects, would pull coverage if quality slips, adding a real compliance check to weak oversight.

Gholahan Pearl Oyelakin, MD, Casting Crown, a developer, shared how they partner with the University of Lagos and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to test and certify alternative materials like recycled blocks and containerised builds, as recently showcased at Lagos’ Falomo Mall.

Read also: How removal of import duties on solar raw materials can boost Nigeria’s industrial future

A Practical Path for Low-Cost Housing

In the final moments, Oluwasile cut to the chase: “Low-cost housing is impossible if transport fails. If you build affordable homes in Abeokuta or Ibadan, but there’s no affordable rail or reliable roads to Lagos, you solve nothing.”

He urged a return to local finishes that withstand coastal corrosion, noting how imported fixtures fail in salty climates while driving up costs. “At some point, prices will rise so high that the market simply stops buying,” he warned.

A New Oath for the Industry

As the session wrapped up, the moderator left the room with a striking thought: what if builders took an oath like doctors do, to not harm, to never cut corners that could kill?

Perhaps that, more than any policy paper, is what Nigeria’s urban future demands: a collective commitment to build honestly, test rigorously and enforce fearlessly, because every shortcut today becomes a headline tomorrow.

Build or Break — The Choice Is Ours

As delegates mingled and the final trivia winners, courtesy of Globus Bank, claimed their prizes, one truth stood unchallenged: Nigeria’s real estate boom will either lift millions into safe, affordable homes or trap them in a cycle of expensive mistakes and wasted lives.

The ideas exist. The standards exist. The funds exist. But only discipline and trust will bring them together.

BusinessDay thanks its partners – VAVA Projects, MKH Investment, Globus Bank, Periwinkle Residences, SG Initiatives, REDAN and the Green Building Council Nigeria – for ensuring this conversation does not end here.

Because the next time the ground shakes, the question will not be whether we knew what to do, but whether we did it.

Build or break: Nigeria’s green building revolution starts now