Ogun partners Malaysian firm to build Abeokuta City

As part of initiatives aimed at providing a socio-economic platform for urban renewal programme and estate development, Ogun State government is collaborating with a Malaysian consulting firm known as Urbanisma to provide a world-class master plan for Abeokuta City Centre.

The City Centre, conceived by the state government to leverage Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, aims to construct a centre like the Broad Street in Lagos where property developers and the state government will invest in the construction of shopping malls, corporate offices, hotels, eateries, relaxation centres, among others.

According to government officials, the project is a way of boosting investment and businesses in the state, especially in Abeokuta, the state capital, through the invitation and localisation of retail outlets such as Shoprite, Walmart, Spar, Park ‘n’ Shop, among others, thereby generating employment opportunities, creating wealth, reducing cost of living via reduction of retail prices of goods and improving standard of living.

Speaking with newsmen in Abeokuta on the proposed City Centre, Daniel Adejobi, commissioner for housing, disclosed that government came up with the project to attract local and foreign investors, initially in the area of estate development and subsequently in the building of showroom for both locally-made and legally-imported goods and the provision of value-services for Nigerians.

Adejobi said that the City Centre, which will be located on the expansive land starting from Ibara Prison down to the old state secretariat at Oke-Ilewo, will feature mostly skyscrapers ranging from 20-storey to 60-storey buildings. He added that “different business units such as shopping malls, hotels and relaxation centres” would also be situated under separate buildings in the City Centre.

“The plan would be of 60-storey buildings and the project would be handled by professionals in such a way that the outcome would attract indigenes abroad to come home, as this would improve the standard of living of the people,” he said.

Meanwhile, government has taken definite measures to curb the illegal activities of property and land grabbers as well as land encroachment in the state-owned Agbara Industrial Estate, urging the industrialists and residents of the Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC) in the area to provide useful information that will help government end land encroachment and property grabbing in the area.

Babajide Odusolu, a special adviser to Governor Ibikunle Amosun and managing director of OPIC, revealed that government was determined to end the unlawful act that had cost investors in the place fortunes. He declared that with support of concerned stakeholders, the challenges would be tackled successfully.

Speaking during an interactive session with stakeholders in the estate, Odusolu appealed to them to support the government in fishing out illegal land vendors who have encroached on the corporation’s property through various illegal activities, which have affected the real owners that are mostly investors and the engine room of the state economy. He assured the concerned owners of government’s quick and effective intervention.

He also explained that government, in its urban renewal drive, was committed to improving on the existing road network in the area to comply with “Ogun Standard”, which would pave way for more vibrant industrial activities that are mutually beneficial, as well as ensuring the security of lives and property of the industrial estate’s entrepreneurs, labour and residents at all times.

By: RAZAQ AYINLA