17th April, 2014
Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta
In pursuance of the urban renewal programme of the Ibikunle Amosun administration in Ogun state, four new estates with 600 housing units are being developed in the three Senatorial Districts.
Babajide Odusolu, the Special Adviser on Trade and Investment who also doubles as the Managing Director, Ogun State Property Investment Corporation, OPIC disclosed this in Abeokuta during a chat with some selected journalists.
Odusolu disclosed that his corporation is working hand-in-hand with other relevant government agencies and ministries including Bureau of Lands and Survey, State Housing Corporation and the Ministry of Housing.
The Special Adviser, who later took the media men round some of the projects explained that about 170 hectares of service plots have been opened up in Kobape area of Abeokuta while New Makun City in Sagamu area has over 750 hectares of both housing and service plots.
In Plain Field in Abeokuta township, Odusolu explained that about 120 housing units of affordable housing units were reaching completion while in Orange Valley also in Abeokuta 140 housing units will soon be ready for use.
He said the government has also embarked on 200 cheaper and affordable housing units at Workers Community estate, Laderin in Abeokuta while 100 units of bungalows are also on-going inside Agbara Estate,which is being referred to as New Agbara Estate.
According to him, all the on-going projects are to be delivered within the 12-18 months maximum window.
“In New Makun Estate in Sagamu, we are going to be doing minimum of 100 units in the first phase. We should be starting in the second half of this year. Those are going to be a hybrid because of people that may want to relocate from Lagos. We have a medium term plan for this year, we are going to be doing 100 units cumulative and every year we are expected to be doing multiples of that,” Odusolu stated.
Commenting on the activities of the land grabbers, the Lawyer turned Estate Developer, said the government has been able to claw-back over 300 hectares of land in the in Agbara area, adding that, the major focus of the Corporation is to create an enabling environment for investors who will return back through tariff and taxes.
According to the Managing Director, “In Agbara when I took over, what they told me was that we had just 200 hectares out of 3000 hectares, in one of the prime locations in Agbara, Area 4, I was told that all we had left was about 2 hectares, as of today, in Area 4, we have over 20 hectares claw-backs, in Area 8,I was told we had about 20 hectares available, in that area we have over 150 hectares claw-backs. People were not stealing, but inefficiency, negligence and lack of understanding because lands were being reserved for people when the affected people have even forgotten having a property in the area”.
He added that a total of N20 billion was being targeted as revenue to the State government.
“This will be the first time OPIC will be remitting something to the State. Before this administration came in, they were not doing that. There were lots of gaps in the system and they were not generating that much revenue”,Odusolu revealed.