The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has intensified efforts to strengthen governance in Nigeria’s built environment ahead of its summit to advance Environmental, Social and Governance compliance across the sector.
The Chairman of the LCCI Construction and Engineering Group, Soji Adeniji, on Thursday in Lagos, said the forthcoming conference would signal a major shift towards transparency, sustainability and accountability in construction, engineering and real estate.
Adeniji said, “We are gathered here today not merely to announce an event but to signal a defining shift in the future of Nigeria’s built environment, a shift that demands responsibility, transparency and sustainability.”
He stated that the Chamber, through its Construction and Engineering and Real Estate Sectoral Groups, would convene a landmark advocacy and knowledge-sharing event focused on ESG implementation across the built-environment value chain.
Highlighting the urgency, Adeniji, a quantity surveyor, noted that Nigeria’s rapid urbanisation and increased infrastructure investments had not been matched with strong governance and sustainability practices.
Adeniji said, “Nigeria stands at a critical intersection. We are urbanising rapidly. We are investing heavily in infrastructure. Yet, we continue to face challenges: building failures, regulatory inconsistencies, environmental degradation and governance gaps in project delivery.”
He added that the challenges were systemic and required a structured response anchored in ESG compliance.
The LCCI Construction sector chief stressed that ESG provides a practical framework for sustainable construction, protection of lives and improved governance in project execution.
Adeniji remarked, “Sustainable construction is no longer optional; it is the foundation for economic growth, investor confidence and national development.”
He explained that the summit would galvanise stakeholders, engage regulators and provide practical pathways for ESG implementation, while strengthening collaboration across the seven built environment professions and positioning Nigeria competitively within global sustainability standards.
He also called on government institutions, regulators, developers, financial institutions and professional bodies to move beyond dialogue and take deliberate action.
“We must align policies, streamline approvals, enforce standards and incentivise compliance,” Adeniji said.
Speaking on the broader implications, the Chairman of the LCCI Real Estate Group, Dr Michael Oladiji, stressed that ESG integration was critical to unlocking investment and improving infrastructure quality.
Oladiji said, “Integrating ESG compliance within the built environment is not just a compliance issue. It is about galvanising investment for that sector. It is about ensuring that there is quality of infrastructure developments and also ensuring that the Nigerian-built environment remains competitive globally.”
He added that the theme of the conference, ‘Mainstreaming ESG Compliance in the Engineering, Construction and Real Estate Sector in Nigeria’, reflected the growing importance of ESG in investment decisions and corporate performance.
Oladiji noted that the real estate sector contributed about 13.4 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product in 2025, underscoring the need to prioritise it within national economic policy.
Oladiji said, “The goal is to take the ESG adoption from concept to action, from policy discussion towards practical implementation within the built environment.”
Also speaking, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Global Property and Facilities International, Muhammad Balogun, said governance remained central to achieving ESG objectives.
Balogun said, “I am also here to emphasise the need for practitioners to focus on governance, internal governance. That helps organisations to be stronger and to be able to adopt ideas.”
The CEO of GPFI, billed to deliver the keynote address, added that the conference would focus on actionable outcomes rather than discussions alone.
“It is not a talk show; it is not a conversational event; it is a call-to-action event… we are going to move forward from just thinking about ESG to seeing the value,” Balogun declared.
He noted that practical case studies from Nigeria and Africa would be presented to demonstrate the benefits of ESG adoption and encourage wider uptake across the industry.
On collaboration, stakeholders emphasised that addressing systemic challenges in the built environment required collective action.
Balogun said, “A systemic failure requires a systemic collaboration to solve the failure that has been observed within the built environment.”
Adeniji added that the conference would produce a communiqué to drive industry-wide adoption, stating, “We will be putting out a communiqué document that we can then use to advocate for industry-wide adoption and implementation of ESG in the future.”
