With Lekki Miami Beach Resort, you need not go abroad for leisure – Uranta

Set on Epe coastline, Lekki Miami Beach Resort, a new leisure concept driven by passion out of one’s life experience with the leisure tables of the world, is set to provide best leisure for families and corporates.  In this interview, Justus Clinton Uranta, chairman of the resort, shares his passion in replicating Miami Florida in Nigeria.  Excerpts

Vision for establishing the resort

Like I have said in my past interviews, Lekki Miami Beach Resort came as result of my experience in the course of traversing the world during my fulltime employment. Then, I had the opportunity travelling to the developed world where I ran into beautiful resorts in Gambia, Ghana, France and especially the Miami Beach of Florida. At Florida, they took advantage of their coastlines and build them to an enviable height, and they have become tourist attraction today. But I kept asking myself, why we cannot have such things in Nigeria. When you look at Nigeria, the biggest coastline is in Lagos-from Badagry to Epe. There may be coastlines in the riverine areas of Warri, Sapele and Port Harcourt, but they are not as prominent as what you find in Lagos. But having lived most of my life in Lagos, I got thinking that we can replicate things we see outside Nigeria at home for the benefit of our people who may not be able to travel to such places. That was the motivation for setting up Lekki Miami Beach Resort. The coastlines are here, so what else. It may not be the same standard as we have in Florida. Though sad, yet a journey of 1,000 miles starts with a step and that is what we have started. We believe that over time, it will develop and attract foreigners.

What does Lekki Miami Beach Resort offer?

Lekki Miami is beautiful and a private beach. Most people that come here fall in love with our beach even more than the accommodation we offer. Our beautiful landscape has provided a generous lawn tennis court and beach bars where you can relax and enjoy the serene and beach breeze. Guests also enjoy cool fresh breeze.

Patronage after five months of commissioning

Nigerians are very good travellers. Each time you travel outside the country you will discover that three out of 10 black people are Nigerians. Nigerians love tourism, but we have difficulty developing it in our country. If you go to any of the beaches I have mentioned, you find a large number of Nigerians relaxing and enjoying themselves. So, we felt that if they can go that far, they can as well come this near with less expenses and, of course, equal standard of leisure.

Clientele

Interestingly, we have had customers across all class-private and corporate. Also, the beach serves both resident and non-resident customers. We have had corporate customers like Chevron coming here to relax some of their staff, Mobil have shown interest and a whole lot of others. A prominent king in Nigeria has also spent days here and he was very happy with what he saw. We are very hopeful that over time we will be known and many people will take advantage of what we have provided here for their comfort.

How secured are your customers?

Our customers are extremely secured. Right from the beginning, we were conscious of security and we engaged the service of the police.  We have up to three armed guard police men, private security and we also have up to four guard dogs that patrol here 24 hours. Since we started here, there has not been any incident that will put us in bad light and we are very conscious of this.

Government support

That is our major challenge in this place and is not entirely unexpected because this is rural community. Before now, significant investments like this would have attracted government to come and build road, but we are here now and many other investments are springing up too. This place is developing, Coca Cola is coming up with a massive estate here, Obasanjo Farm is coming here and many others, so we expect that government would start to look at this area. Though the road is sandy, it is passable because leisure is not found in the cities. This is the kind of road you find along the beach line, but we are hopeful that the governor elect in Lagos State whom I understand is from this area (Epe) will look at infrastructure development to support investment in this area. More so that the Lagos State government is conscious of this coastline having established the Ministry of Tourism, we believe that government would look into this area soon.

Advice to would-be investors

Most Nigerians like to look for readymade markets where they can make it faster, but with projects of this nature you must be patient. Look at the location, it is not where overnight people will flock in, unlike in London that before you complete a project people that need it are already showing interest. People should come home, let us develop our own. We have huge potential for growth. God has given us vast land and other natural resources that we have not even tapped into. We need patience because you do not embark on a project and have in mind that only you must be the one to reap the reward. Your children and generations unborn will be ultimate beneficiaries; after all, the London we have today was not developed by the people enjoying it. The underground trains were built in the 17th centuries and the people are long gone and the contemporaries of today are enjoying the place. So, that is exactly what we want to do here, by being patient, and establish what will outlive us. I will encourage entrepreneurs to come over. Right from Badagry to Epe, there are virgin land and beautiful coastlines where you can put up five-star hotels and they will sell. The resources we have here are so much that will attract a lot of foreign investors, and when they come they will love to see things like this and they will be happier for it. The Obudu Ranch we have today was not developed overnight. It is has been there for ages, and overtime successive governments of Cross River State keep investing on the infrastructure and today it is a place people from all climes come to enjoy leisure. I am happy with what is happening at the Bar Beach, where they want to develop world class estate, it should be encouraged. People should come down to this coastline as well and backwards to Badagry side, so that our place will look like Miami which we are trying to replicate here.

Nigeria attracting the kind of investment it requires

All that investors want is a stable economy. Any economy that is safe, devoid of rancour and there is stability people will come there. The world is aware of the potential in Nigeria.

Projections for Lekki Miami Beach Resort?

I and am my colleagues are very clear of what we want this place to be. Simply put, we want this place to be like the Miami Beach in Florida. We want a place where all manners of recreational activities can be found, such that when you step in, you relax. It is the concept, it is not a hotel where you come to sleep and check out in the morning. It is a resort where you come to relax with your family and your loved ones for days. Right now, four newlyweds are having their honeymoon here. If there was no place like this may be they would have gone to Ghana or Gambia, but they have found this place exciting and are very comfortable. You can imagine, there was no power now to light up the air conditioners and they are not complaining because natural sea breez is coming right from the waters into the rooms and environs. They have spacious environment to walk round. That is the kind of concept we want to bring here. We have 24 hours internet service, we plan to have large size gym and spa, we have long tennis court, we are planning a mini golf court, there is beach bar and also disco hall for young people and even adults can come there and listen to music of all ages, and times. And our hotel room accommodations are world standard. We want Nigerians to stop going abroad for leisure when it can be found here. That is what we want to achieve.