Eko Atlantic City seen as marketing tool for Nigeria’s real estate potential, opportunities

On account of its scale and ambitious concept, Eko Atlantic City—an emerging real estate phenomenon in Lagos, South West Nigeria—has been described as a marketing tool for the great potential and enormous opportunities in the country’s real estate.

In far away Cannes, South of France, where it was presented by its developers and planners as a specialized project case study at MIPIM, the world’s leading annual property market event, the city was applauded by real estate experts and investors as a ‘pinnacle project’ in Nigeria.

“For a lot of people that were here today, it was pretty eye-opening to see the scale and ambition of the project and I think that Eko Atlantic should almost become a marketing tool for the potential of real estate in the country because it is such an outstanding example, said Mark Bradford, chairman of JLL for Sub-Saharan Africa”, adding,  “it’s the pinnacle, really, of ambition on the continent and definitely something that more people should get to learn about”.

Eko Atlantic, a project being promoted by South Energyx Nigeria Limited, will be sitting on 10 million square metres of land reclaimed from the sea and will become home to 250,000 residents with 150,000 other people commuting to it every day.

“It is now time for international companies to take a much closer look at investment potential in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially Nigeria”, said Ronald Chagoury Jr, the Vice Chairman of South Energyx who addressed the gathering at Cannes on real estate development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“If you can just get over some of the perception issues for Nigeria and look at the market as it actually is, you will automatically have an advantage over everyone else”, he added, pointing out that “Nigeria is now the continent’s largest economy and has a rapidly growing population; we have a need for everything and the key ingredients for success are being present, consistency and quality”.

Chagoury, who spoke on  ‘Sub-Saharan Africa: Let There Be Light’, explained that the real-estate sector was desperately short of housing, noting that Nigeria had a shortage of 16 million homes with a shortfall of five million units in Lagos alone.

The developers of the city say 90 per cent of its infrastructure will be completed by the end of this year, adding that it is 100 per cent privately funded,  registered Free Zone and will have reliable 24/7 utilities such as an independent natural gas power plant, independent water and sewage treatment plants, and a state-of-the-art fibre optic network.

The four-day MIPIM event brought together the most influential players from all property sectors including office, residential, retail, healthcare, sport, logistics and industrial, offering unrivalled access to the greatest number of development projects and sources of capital worldwide.

This year’s edition was the first time its organizers focused on the investment opportunities in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), and West Africa (Angola, Ghana and Nigeria). “It was one of the few times I have seen people focus on the positives of Sub-Saharan Africa other than all the normal issues of conflict, corruption and fraud”,   said John Okonkwo, the MD of Projects Ducain Forbes Limited. “There is no doubt that the international momentum now is in Africa’s favour”, he added.

According to him, Eko Atlantic is, in part, showcasing what is possible in Africa’, adding, “it shows that very large ticket investments can be done successfully at an international quality standard in Africa”.