FG, firm sign pact for devt of Abuja Centenary City

In a bid to achieve the Centenary City project, the Federal Government, last week in Abuja signed an $18bn (N2.9 trillion) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a conglomerate of developers under the Centenary City Plc (CCP). CCP is charged with the task of building the city.

The mass land, which spreads across 2,500 hectares, would provide over 1250 units of houses, which would be ceded to the developers as concession, while the Federal Government through the FCT would be holding the remaining portion, adding that the project would be completed under a period of 60 months

The project is expected to create over 500,000 jobs for Nigerians.

Signing on behalf of the Federal Government, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FTC), Senator Bala Mohammed, noted that the mass land, which spreads across 2,500 hectares, would provide over 1,250 units of houses which would be ceded to the developers as concession, while the Federal Government through the FCT would be holding the remaining portion, adding that the project would be completed under a period of 60 months.

According to Mohammed, the Centenary City Plc has paid full compensation to the original inhabitants of the earmarked area for the city, which would lead to the displacement and relocation of about four Gbagyi communities along the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport road in the FCT, adding that FCT administration would soon commence the enumeration of those living on the affected land for payment and relocation.

He noted that, as provided in the conceptual design, eighty percent of the city would be for commercial, which would provide employment opportunity for over 500, 000 Nigerians during the implementation and after completion of the project respectively. He also informed that the city would have convention centers, hotels and other facilities that offer employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed Nigerians.

The Minister assured that certain measures have also been taken to make sure that the project is completed as at when due and would not be abandoned as it has been the case in the past, adding that it was as a result of the FCT administration’s resolve that the project should not be rushed into until all the necessary enablement are provided that brought about the disagreements and differences it had with the office of the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), which has been coordinating all centenary issues on the immediate take-off of the city project.

He added: “The FCDA will be part of the programme, to make sure that it complies with the Abuja Master Plan and indeed it will be accelerated because all the due diligence in terms of financing and technical capabilities have been done. To think of $18billion coming from other sources outside the Federal Government revenue of oil, is a salutary effect on the economy.

“The conceptual design has been done and the final preliminary design has been approved, so they can go to site. Government, especially the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government has shown so much interest in the project. We have severally discussed and agreed to move on after series of disagreement over the concept of the city.

“In the agreement, we have set out a period of 60 months for the completion of the city. We have already earmarked a particular area within the FCT, measuring approximately 1200 hectares of land for the project. The demographic enumeration in that area has been done and the compensation has been made and right now the Centenary City Plc is ready to move in to the next stage of discussing with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to produce all enabling technical details of the city,” he assured.