The Lagos State Government recently gave itself a bold target: to emerge as the third biggest economy in Africa within the next three years. Infrastructure development is critical to driving this economic growth, as well as vital in relieving the pressure that will come because of this growth.
“There will be pressure on social infrastructure, but Lagos has often risen up to the challenge to meet up people’s expectations, and we will continue to deal with it as we have often done,” said Steve Ayorinde, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, while announcing the plan earlier this month.
A key partner in helping the state realise this ambition is Rendeavour, widely hailed as Africa’s largest urban land developer. The firm, which specialises in unique satellite city concepts, has invested in an estimated 12,000 hectares across Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Nigeria, it has committed to developing 1,000 hectares within the Lagos Free Zone in partnership with Lekki Worldwide Investments Limited and separately a similar sized project within the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.
Both projects, according to Yomi Ademola, Head of West Africa at Rendeavour, will emerge as world class satellite cities that are drivers of economic growth and serve as needed catalysts for further investment in logistics, manufacturing, housing and offices.
Satellite cities have been established by land use experts as the best ways to accommodate population growth while maintaining urban plans and preserving green spaces. They are usually located adjacent to major cities and designed to provide a balance between their population and resources. For a country like Nigeria, with an extreme housing shortage, satellite cities are critical in taking some weight off bloated urban centres. When built as market-led, mixed-use developments, satellite cities, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, increase Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), introduce world class infrastructure, increase employment and encourage manufacturing and industries. In Africa, Rendeavour has emerged as the leading satellite cities developer.
The firm’s development model involves land acquisition; re-zoning of the land; creation of a master plan; infrastructure development; and the establishment of what it calls ‘live-work-play’ environments. “A typical project for us involves mixed-use development on around 1,000 hectares of land located 20-30 minutes away from the city centre, and designed to provide housing for around 100,000 residents and facilities for tens of thousand of day visitors,” said Ademola. “Each development has the potential to create approximately 100,000 permanent and 220,000 temporary jobs during its 20-year project lifetime. We work in partnership with world-class experts, local developers and governments at various levels to create these mixed-income satellite cities.”
In Lagos, Rendeavour entered a joint venture with the state government to develop 1,000 hectares within the Lekki Free Trade Zone. There, the firm plans to establish a satellite city that experts agree is critical to the zone. In Abuja, Rendeavour has embarked on the master planning of Jigna, a satellite city development nestled in the high grounds above Katampe’s Diplomatic Residential Area. “We are investing over $300 million in infrastructure, including roads, water sewerage and power at Jigna to build an exemplary community for Nigeria and Africa,” said Ademola. “The outcome will be a thriving community that will also serve as a catalyst for economic, cultural and environmental change.”
With Nigeria’s huge population and acute housing shortage, experts are unanimous in their belief that such private urban developers as Rendeavour bringing in much needed FDI, coupled with favourable investment policies by the federal and state governments, provide the panacea to one of the country’s biggest problems. In its ‘2015 Real Estate Outlook in Nigeria’, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that a real estate survey done in 2013 showed that Nigeria had a housing deficit of 17 million units and requires 700,000 houses to be built annually to keep up with the demand. The NBS further reveals that less than 100,000 houses are built annually in Nigeria. With a projected population of 187 million, according to 2016 data from the United Nations (UN), and an annual population growth rate of 2.7%, Nigeria is in dire need of urgent urban development.
Credit: BusinessDay
