ITB: “We Are One of the Biggest Companies in Nigeria’s Construction Industry”

Interview with Fadi Sawaya, Managing Director of ITB

Can you give us your evaluation of the construction sector and engineering industry in Nigeria? What are the main trends?

Like all the sectors construction is not an exception. It follows the general economy and for about a year we have witnessed a slowdown of projects being released into the market and whatever projects are offered are not being commenced. In fact, we are quoting for projects but the decisions to go ahead keep on being delayed. ITB operates more in the private sector than the public sector. We do enter the public sector however there are more projects in the private sector. In the last 6 or 7 months we have quoted on 5 or 6 projects in the private sector and none of them have made any final decisions to commence with the projects. There are many companies competing and we cannot say that we have lost the contracts but we cannot say we have won them either. The clients keep asking questions about value engineering or negotiating levels of pricing on some items but ultimately still not making any decisions. Some of the projects we know are about to commence keep on being delayed. We have 3 or 4 projects in mind just for Lagos, whether in the hospitality sector or shopping malls or a commercial building. And the release of these projects keeps on being delayed. This is in line with the overall economic climate of the country. All the sectors have been suffering for a while. We will see if there will be decisions from the government that will reverse this trend.

Tell us about ITB. How long have you been in the market? What do you bring to the market?

ITB is an old company. We have been around for over 25 years. In its presents structure ITB has been around for about 21 years but the Chagoury Group has been in the construction business even longer. ITB was established 1995 with more or less the similar structure. We are one of the biggest companies in the market in the construction industry.

We live up to our commitments; we deliver on time and on budget. We can also design and build a projects, whereas most of our competitors are only contractors. They can only build.

How do you differentiate yourself from the competition? What are your strong points?

We live up to our commitments; we deliver on time and on budget. We can also design and build a projects, whereas most of our competitors are only contractors. They can only build. If we are given a project where there is a need for a design we can do it. We have done many projects like that.

Introduce our audience to the major projects that you have been working on or have worked on.

We have just completed a big project last January, The Heritage Place in Kings Road. It is a commercial building for the Actis Group. It was a big project and took us 124 months but we delivered it on time and on budget. We have completed many projects and we have many references around the country and in Lagos especially. In Lagos we did Eko Tower I. We completed it approximately 5 years ago. We built the structure for the Intercontinental Hotel in Lagos. Now we are building another commercial centre on Kingsway Road called the Kingsway Tower. It is a big project and we will complete it on time. We have a big residential complex we are constructing in Eko Atlantic which is the property of the Eko Atlantic group. It’s a big residential complex with around 200 high-end luxury apartments. We just started and the towers will be done with a metallic structure which is very uncommon and unusual in Lagos but it is a technology that we have been working on. We have another big residential project for the Eko hotel, 2 towers of a 140 apartments that we started 6 or 7 months ago. There are also a few other smaller projects that we are close to completing. We just finished a clinic for Total in Port Harcourt 2 months ago. There is another tower in Eko Atlantic that we will deliver around September or October for a private developer. These are the kinds of projects we are currently working on. We have been awarded a big project in Abuja, the international conference centre. It is a government project financed by the Central Bank but it was halted 8 or 9 months ago due to the changing priorities of the government. It will probably resume again soon.

How about any investment opportunities or partnerships you may have? What is your relationship with the government like?

When it comes to partnerships we normally don’t partner with other construction companies. We are big enough to handle big projects. With regards to the government, most of our work is in the private sector at the moment. Of course there are exceptions such as the international conference centre that I mentioned earlier. We have done other conference centres in UYO. We have done hospitals in Calabar. Those were all government projects.

Lastly, please tell us about yourself.

I have given you a history of ITB but as for myself, I am an electrical engineer with an MBA. I graduated from the American university in Beirut and I did my MBA at the INSEAD in Fontainebleau in France. I joined ITB in October 2013 as the managing director and here I am. I am enjoying it. I like Nigeria. I like the environment and I am convinced that the problem the economy is facing now is temporary. It will improve very soon and I believe the decision taken last week to float the Naira is a step in the right direction. It’s still too early to evaluate the consequences of the decision but we are confident that it will ease the tension and that it will encourage investors to begin new projects.

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