The Shift from Manual Processes to Digital Construction in Nigeria
Nigeria’s construction sector is evolving, as urbanisation accelerates and housing demand deepens, legacy construction practices, largely manual, opaque, and fragmented, are proving increasingly unfit for purpose. At NHM’s PropTech Demo Day, industry leaders converged around a clear consensus: digitisation is no longer optional. It is foundational to efficiency, capital protection, and long-term sector sustainability.
The Leadership Perspective: Rewiring the Value Chain
The necessity of this shift took center stage during a technical Q&A led by Olajide Ademola, CEO/Managing Director of Sapir Projects. With over two decades of experience in architecture and construction, Ademola examined how technology can rewire the industry’s value chain.
His core argument: Nigeria’s construction ecosystem must transition from trust-deficient, manual workflows to integrated digital systems anchored on:
Data Integrity
Transparency
User Convenience
Structural Friction: Why Projects Stall in Lagos and Abuja
Despite its economic significance, the Nigerian construction industry operates with high transaction friction. Processes remain heavily dependent on physical documentation and personal networks.
This friction is most visible in prime locations like Victoria Island and Lekki, where investors face:
Prolonged Land Verification: Difficulty accessing Geographical Information System (GIS) data.
Market Opacity: Lack of reliable market comparables.
Risk Elevation: These inefficiencies deter institutional capital and diaspora investors.
Ademola noted that the problem begins at conception. Without digital access to asset-level info, developers are forced into costly trial-and-error. In a market shaped by global capital, this opacity is a structural disadvantage.
The 2026 Reality: Convenience as a Competitive Edge
A recurring theme at PropTech Demo Day 2025 was the changing profile of the Nigerian property consumer. Today's investors—particularly tech-native developers and the Nigerian diaspora—prioritize remote visibility.
Key Insight: Digital platforms enabling real-time project tracking are no longer "value-added extras"; they are baseline requirements for market relevance.
Data Integrity: The Missing Link in Nigerian AI Adoption
While Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a buzzword in construction efficiency, its local application is limited by Nigeria’s fragmented data landscape. AI is only as effective as the data it ingests.
The industry's struggle with the housing deficit illustrates this:
Old Estimate: 17 million units.
2025/2026 Estimate: 28 million units.
The absence of a centralized, continuously updated data repository for land administration and building approvals undermines AI-driven forecasting. For productivity gains to materialize, the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development must collaborate with private PropTech founders to build a structured data infrastructure.
| Challenge Area | Manual Status (Legacy) | Digitally Enabled State (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Trust & Transparency | Physical inspections and fragmented reports | Real-time site access and digital project dashboards |
| Procurement | Informal vendor sourcing and price opacity | Integrated marketplaces with competitive pricing |
| Data Analytics | Static, outdated housing estimates | Live GIS data and AI-driven demand forecasting |
4. What PropTech Founders Must Solve
Beyond infrastructure, Ademola challenged founders to confront adoption barriers. Solutions must address three imperatives:
A "Single Source of Truth": Unified interfaces for designs, approvals, and timelines to reduce dispute risk.
Procurement Digitization: Managing cost overruns by aggregating suppliers and standardizing pricing.
Intuitive User Experience (UX): Reducing the cognitive burden on users to ensure rapid adoption.
Conclusion: Measuring Impact on the Ground
The success of Nigeria’s digital transition will not be determined by the number of platforms that emerge, but by how many homes they help deliver. The future of the Nigerian housing market belongs to technologies that replace fragmentation with clarity, transforming construction from a high-risk undertaking into a predictable, investable system.
