Imperial City: Where journey to homeownership begins with N500
It may sound incredible and look strange, but it is a stark reality that, at Imperial International Business City (IIBC), opportunity exists for homeownership and those who wish to pluck this low hanging fruit can do so with just N500.
Imperial City is an emerging smart city in Lagos that will be in the league of Eko Atlantic City, Orange Island and Gracefield Island where the developers and promoters are reclaiming land from the lagoon and building cities of the future that hold promise for living, working and leisure experience in cozy and self-sustaining environment.
Touted as the first self-sustaining eco-friendly smart business city that will be built in Africa, IIBC which is a joint venture project between Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi and Channeldrill Resources Limited will be sitting on an expansive land with an estimated size of 200 hectares.
Like others in its league, Imperial City is an island development rising within the precinct of the Lekki Peninsula Development Masterplan, but unlike others which target the high flyers in society, this is a haven for all classes of people in society, hence the decision to break down all entry barriers.
“The Elegushi Royal Family and Imperial City have decided to give hard working citizens of Nigeria the chance to dream and be part of this future even when they cannot ordinarily afford it”, said Femi Akioye, MD/CEO, Channeldrill Resources, who spoke at the launch of a promo to kick-start the marketing and sale of plots of land in this smart city.
Akioye explained that the ‘Imperial City Promo’ was a special corporate social responsibility (CSR) and awareness campaign that was happening for the first time in Africa, adding that it was a chance for the average Lagosian and Nigerian to win a plot for just N500 in this city that would become the most expensive in Africa in a few years’ time.
“This promo is borne out of the vision to make the IIBC an all-inclusive project where those we refer to as the average Nigerian can aspire to and obtain a piece of the future. We want those on minimum wage, the working class men and women, the hard working social worker, the civil servant, the teacher and all other citizens who have been contributing to the commonwealth to be part of this future we talk about”, he said.
Continuing, he said, “for just N500, you can become a part of the future by buying a raffle ticket for our special draws which has been approved by the Lagos State Lotteries Board; since what we are building is a smart city, we have leveraged technology to make the tickets available on so many platforms including Quikteller,Winners Golden Bet, Golden Chance Lotto and GTBank 737”.
Within the low density residential inner area of the city, a plot of land measuring 650 square metres sells for N42 million and 7 of such plots have been dedicated for this promo which will run for seven weeks starting from Thursday, November 17 through December 29, 2016. This means that every Thursday, starting from that date, somebody will win a plot of land in this city.
There are also cash prizes to be won and, according to Akioye, about 394 lucky people will benefit from this. A breakdown of the beneficiaries shows that 19 people will win N1 million each; 40 people will win N500,000 each; 135 people will win N100,000 each while 210 people will N50,000 each.
The development of Imperial City as part of ‘new urbanism’ in Lagos is well articulated and premised on informed and futuristic investment decision and in the opinion of Akioye, “there is definitely no better qualified city to start the smart and green revolution that define modern cities in Nigeria than Lagos.
“One of the major keys to sustaining Lagos as Nigeria’s economic capital is the Lekki axis and within that axis, the ancient Ikate Elegushi Kingdom seats at the center of the area that has been projected to account for over $50 billion foreign direct investment (FDI)in the next four years”, he asserted.
“Lagos is the fourth largest economy in Africa with a GDP of $131 billion; the state has over 18 million population, an unbelievable growing middle class of 4-5 million people that need a good place to live. The state also accounts for 90 percent of FDI in Nigeria within the last one year. It is also one of the largest growing cosmopolitan cities in the world and Lekki is a big part of that”, he said, stressing that this is where IIBC is situated, making it a compelling investment destination.
Besides this, the city also boast modern facilities and state-of-the-art infrastructure including three access roads, waterways and lakes; underground drainage; sewage treatment; water and water treatment plant; independent gas fired electricity and cooking gas piped to every home; fibre optics cable; cloud enabled communication network and smart city for willing subscribers, mini marina and water park, mini Gulf course, etc .
CHUKA UROKO