Amid increasing demand for residential accommodation along Lekki corridors on Lagos/Epe Expressway, a “smart city” known as Imperial International Business City (IIBC), has been unveiled to cater for those who desire a good place to live.
The upcoming city which is the first self-sustaining eco-friendly smart business city that will be built in Africa with all features of modern cities across the world, sits on 200 hectares of land located behind Lekki Phase 1 and Ikate Elegushi Kingdom.
Model of Imperial International Business City
Describing the massive housing project which cost is put at whopping 300 million US dollars, Mr. Femi Akioye, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Channeldrill Resources Ltd, developers and promoters of the city in Lagos at the weekend at the Imperial city promo aimed at affording low income earners in Lagos be part of those to live in the city even when they cannot ordinarily afford the cost, said the project is the product of the vision of HRM, Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi and Channeldrill Resources Ltd who are the joint developers of IIBC.
Explaining the concepts of modern cities in the world, Akioye noted that there are two things that will define the future of modern cities in the world, and they are Smart and Green, adding that there is no better place to start this campaign in Africa than Nigeria.
According to him, there is definitely no city more qualified in Nigeria to kick start this revolution than Lagos state which is the economic nerve centre of Africa, pointing out that one of the major keys to the sustenance of Lagos remaining that economic capital is the Lekki axis and within that axis, the Ancient Ikate Elegushi Kingdom seats at the centre of the area that has been projected will account for over 50 billion dollars Foreign Direct Investment in the next four years.
He said “Lagos state is the 4th largest economy in Africa with a GDP of $131B to equal the economies of 42 countries.
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% of Foreign Direct Investment (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.
“In preparation for this massive investment that is coming to Ikate Elegushi domain, IIBC is determined not to only build a city for the future, but to build a city that will become a case study all over Africa. The future they say is for the visionary person that sees what people will see in 10 years today and that is what IIBC is about.
To help us actualize this dream, we have engaged the best contractors and consultants the western world can offer to make this a reality”, Channeldrill boss stated.
Akioye disclosed that the project offers different varied sizes of plots, adding that the minimum plot size is 650 sqm, while others include 800sqm, 1000sqm, 200sqm, 2000sqm, 3000sqm and 5000sqm.
On the project consultants and contractors for the city, Akioye disclosed that they include Dredging International Limited from Belgium, Royal HaskoningDHV from Netherlands who are marine engineer & reclamation consultants, infrastructure engineering consultants are Mott Macdonald from United Kingdom and Gensler Associates who are master & town planners from United Kingdom.
