Vice President Namadi Sambo while performing the ground-breaking ceremony on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan at the Waru District, Abuja commended the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed for his ingenuity to provide engineering infrastructure initiative in partnership with the private sector within the context of the Land Use Act to serve as a solution to the public funding challenges.
Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed in his welcome address at the ceremony explained that the $6 billion private capital to be deployed by the developers for the comprehensive development of the eight districts within two sector centres comprise of infrastructure investment amounting to $2.4 billion and secondary investment in residential, commercial, multi-purpose, institutional and active recreation development to the tune of $3.6 billion.
According to him, the amount excludes the cost of over N4 billion so far expended by the investors to produce the necessary critical documentation for the districts, namely the survey data, the detailed land use plans, the final engineering designs and the bills of engineering measurement and evaluation (BEME). This is a significant saving for the FCTA.
Concerning resettlement and compensation of Abuja original inhabitants in the area, the Minister said the investors are committing the sum of N64 Billion for the funding of infrastructure and housing for the Project Affected Persons at Gude Resettlement district. He addecd that so far, the survey, planning and engineering designs of this resettlement district have already commenced.
The minister said that with the injection of $6 billion of investment, the huge benefits accruable to Nigeria, and the FCT in particular, cannot be over emphasised. The Land Swap initiative, he stressed, would create over 25,000 plots of land, provide housing for more than one million residents and create over 500,000 new jobs.
He said that 15 core investors were currently participating in the project while six of them have concluded on all aspects of the technical and financial negotiations including the execution of the necessary Agreement, which was done on the 23rd of September 2014. The six investors are Urban Shelter Infrastructure Limited; System Property Development Company Limited; Afri-International Projects Limited; BGD Properties Limited; Gilmor Engineering Company Limited; and AM-PM Global Network Limited.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
The FCT Minister expressed delight that the Administration succeeded in attracting the best of Nigerian investors including the richest person in Africa and the richest black woman in the world as well as prominent construction and property development companies to key into the initiative.
