Infrastructure, real estate projects that made waves in 2024

Some infrastructure and real estate projects in Nigeria made waves for good or wrong reasons in 2024. Those projects attracted enormous attention to themselves. Some got enmeshed in legal actions, media hype, controversy and state (government) might, leading to seizure and forfeiture.

Whereas big city developments such as Eko Atlantic City and Gracefield Island were evolving quietly and ambitiously, attracting both foreign and domestic investment interests, the story is entirely different for equally large scale developments like the 753-duplex residential estate in Abuja and the Okun Ajah estate in Lagos where diaspora Nigerians were said to have invested $250 million.

Eko Atlantic and Gracefield Island are both island urban communities that are at the forefront of Lagos new urbanism which seeks to provide new communities to serve upper and middle class home seekers in a most secure and sustainable environment defined by superior infrastructure.

The two signature developments are being developed by South Energyx Nigeria Limited and Gravitas Investments Limited respectively. They contrast sharply with the 753-duplex estate whose ownership became a subject of controversy at the time it was discovered and seized as a proceed of fraud.

The expansive estate whose value is estimated at N88 billion is said to belong to Godwin Emefiele, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The state-owned and funded Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which discovered and seized the estate, has secured its final forfeiture to the state.

The anti-graft agency noted that the estate which sits on 150,500 square metres and identified as Plot 109, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja, is the biggest single recovery it had made in the course of fighting corruption since its establishment in 2003.

“The dust which this estate raised is not only because of its large size and humongous cost, but also because of its ownership. The former CBN governor over-reached himself at many fronts. This was a public servant superintending the nation’s apex bank, yet he was a real estate developer.

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The same Emefiele was rumoured at a time to have bought the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to contest for the president of this country, still occupying his position as CBN governor. The man, actually, like to stoke controversy and constantly put himself on harm’s way,” Abayomi Adedeji, a real estate consultant, noted in a telephone chat with BusinessDay.

EFCC alleged that Emefiele developed the estate with proceeds of unlawful activities, explaining that he negotiated kickbacks in return for allocation of foreign exchange to some companies who were in desperate need of foreign exchange for their lawful and legitimate businesses.

“Our investigation equally revealed that erstwhile CBN governor received kickbacks from some contractors who were awarded contracts by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” the anti-graft agency added.

Another real estate project that made waves in the out-going year is WinHomes Global Investment, an estate located in Okun Ajah, a Lagos suburb, where about 500 investors have taken position. It was said that about 70 percent of these investors were Nigerians in Diaspora whose stake in the estate was estimated at $250 million.

This estate, like the Landmark Africa’s Beach Resort in Victoria Island, was demolished to create right of way for the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. The estate made waves chiefly because a larger proportion of the investors were Diaspora Nigerians who have become favoured brides by real estate developers whose products are largely targeted at the Diasporans because of the remittances much of which are said to be invested in real estate assets.

The Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) confirmed that many of their members invested in the Okun Ajah estate, faulting the government for the spate of demolitions and calling for fair compensation for the victims.

“What is happening is discouraging new investment in this sector. About 35 percent of diaspora investors have been affected and these are people whose annual remittances contribute significantly to the national GDP. We, as a body, want both federal and state governments to make the country investment haven for all categories of investors,” Kunle Adeyemi, vice chairman, South West Zone of REDAN, said.

Adeyemi noted that many of the Diaspora Nigerians were reconsidering their investment decisions back home because, according to him, security of investment is no longer guaranteed as a result of the spate of property demolitions in Lagos and Abuja.

The infrastructure project that dominated the construction industry in 2024 with allegations, counter allegations and even legal actions was the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway which has assumed the status of “the most controversial infrastructure project in Nigeria so far.”

This is a 700-kilometre project that will run from Victoria Island, Lagos to Calabar, Cross River State. It will traverse Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom states, before ending in Calabar. The project is intended to connect the western and south-eastern regions of Nigeria and is expected to improve cross-country connectivity and trade relations.

The first major controversy around the project, which actually rattled construction engineering, was its lack of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). The first Nigerian to raise alarm on this aberration in engineering was former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku who was also uncomfortable with the project’s procurement process, described it as “wasteful and a highway of fraud” over the claim by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, that the 700-km road would tentatively cost N15.6 trillion.

The obvious lack of ESIA raised concerns among Nigerians who reasoned that, in accordance with the provisions of the 1992 EIA Act, no project of that magnitude can take off without an approved EIA by the federal ministry of environment.

Indeed, construction industry analysts were amazed by a lot of things about the project, despite Umahi’s explanation that, “for the avoidance of doubt, the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project is being done under EPC +F which, he said, is a project financing mechanism in which EPC+F contractors also arrange financing for the project. EPC+F is Engineering, Procurement and Construction plus Financing.”

The analysts had a lot to worry about. For instance, the coastal highway appeared to be such an ‘urgent’ project that work on it commenced even before it was announced to the public. For them, it was quite a feat and highly unusual for any government project in this part of the world. Typically, such projects are slow to take off and are riddled with delays, but, in this case it’s quite different.

The analysts noted too that this is the only project of this magnitude Nigerians have ever seen or heard of where an EIA stakeholder meeting was convened after the project had commenced, making it seem as though the views and concerns of stakeholders and the potential environmental impact of the project were of no concern to the project owners/sponsors.