The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ante

  • Lakowe Lakes ups the ante in real estate development

    A firm, Mixta Africa, a subsidiary of ARM Limited, has upped the ante in real estate development with its 308-hectare Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Estate in Lagos.

    The estate, a gated community with an 18-hole golf course, guest cottages, corporate lodges, spa facilities, hotel and a clubhouse, offers a distinctive lifestyle in a serene and luxurious environment. The development, its promoters claimed, is unmatched by any in West Africa.

    According to the firm’s Head, Business Development, Sales and marketing, Mr. Korede Lawrence-Salu, the estate is divided into three communities – the Village, which is the luxury residential community within the estate. This consists of 18 residential homes, offering two distinct styles and specially designed to cater for a select few.

    He explained that each of the homes has amenities adaptable to residents’ requirements, with wide doorways, ramp access, handrails, lighting and security features. Home owners will also enjoy the exclusive use of a dedicated gym, mini-club house, swimming pool, landscaped gardens, bike rails, and walkways.

    “No future expansion is planned within the Village beyond these 18 unique homes,” Lawrence-Salu explained.

    The “Enclave”, which is the second community in the estate, is a premium residential community featuring a range of houses that are themed around some of the spectacular and renowned natural landforms in the country. The Enclave comprises 206 homes, delivered with roads, water, and sewage treatment plants. This section, according to the Marketing Manager, provides a unique Lakowe Lakes experience.

    “Here, residential units are offered in a range of styles to meet the diverse requirements of homeowners, including palatial retreats for executives, cozy homes for couples, corporate clients, and larger units for families,” he said.

    The third section is serviced residential plots that are delivered with facilities. In this section, intending clients are offered 10 house designs to choose from and they will be completed by only approved contractors by the firm. This, Lawrence-Salu said, is to ensure that standards are not compromised while the designs are also not altered.

    Mixta Africa Hospitality and Retail Managing Director, Mrs. Sade Hughes, said the estate was set up with as a corporate lodge facility, as well as a nature-inspired spa resort that promotes wellness, relaxation and recreation.

    Hughes said this was why it offers a perfect setting for corporate bodies looking for residential conference and retreat venues; leisure groups looking for weekend or holiday getaways; spa and wellness enthusiasts looking for one of a kind upscale experience or social parties and other celebratory events requiring a unique destination venue.

    The 18-hole championship golf course, she noted, takes advantage of the coastal forest with fairways surrounded by natural ecosystem. The golf course became functional in 2011 and had set new standards for golf courses in West Africa.

    Other golfing benefits include a gold academy, pro-shop, a 9-hole par-3 course, driving range, short game practice facility as well as a clubhouse, offering an extensive array of food and beverage to golfers and guests.

    “Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Estate continues to offer the promise of an unrivalled lifestyle of luxurious living and security. The estate has proven itself to be more than just a place for living and playing golf; it coexists with nature; it is a place for those, who know how to define their personality,” she submitted.

  • Ibukun Awosika ups the ante

    Ibukun Awosika ups the ante

    There is no developmental tool more effective than empowering women. Nigeria is at par with this maxim and has been appreciating the dynamism of women in various professions. First Bank of Nigeria has appointed its first female Chairman. Ibukun Awosika’s appointment came up with the retirement of the former chairman, Prince Ajibola Afonja.

    She is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees of Women in Management and Business (WIMBIZ) as well as the Chairman of Intermac, the organisers of Smart Card Conference in Nigeria. Awosika holds a B.sc in Chemistry from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), an MBA from IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain and she is also an alumnus of the Lagos Business School Chief Executive Programme.

    She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Chair Centre, Sokoa Chair Centre Limited and TCC Security Systems, which are manufacturers and marketers of office furniture, office seats and banking security systems in Nigeria and West Africa.

  • Jades ups the ante in Abuja

    Jades ups the ante in Abuja

    Within the last couple of years, the Nigerian hospitality industry has witnessed a kind of steady growth with the current atmosphere of peace under a democratic polity.

    With the robust hospitality climate, the drive to acquire a certain per cent of the market share has seen some of the unbranded hospitality outfits coming up with new and innovative services.

    The latest is a new hospitality outfit,Jades Hotels, billed to open today in Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.

    The opening of the 60-room hotel, according to the management of the hotel, would be performed by Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State.

    However, knowing the competitive nature of the hospitality market in Abuja, the hotel general manager, Mr. Varun Sivanandan, said Jades was set to revolutionize the industry with certain innovative signature services.

    The hotel general manager, who was upbeat about the official opening ceremony, said it would offer the hotel the opportunity to showcase its new approach to customer satisfaction and the running of hospitality business.

    Sivanandan, an Indian and graduate in hospitality management with added exposure of managing top rated hospitality outfits in India and Dubai, spoke on his desire to take Jades Hotels to the next level.

    He explained that even though he was new in the Nigerian hospitality industry, he said guests satisfaction was the key thing, anywhere in the world in the hospitality business.

    His words: “I have had experience in a four-star hotel in India and at the international level. I can take Jades to the next level. I am a degree holder in the hospitality.”

    The hotel is a mixture of luxury and business. The hotel’s facilities cut across different categories just to cater for an eclectic market.

    Many believe that the hotels in Abuja are too many, leading to cut-throat competition.

    On this, Sivanandan disagreed. He said: “There is what we call segmentation in hospitality, and competition in the industry is a welcomed development. It is difficult for the customers to get value for money with services in the hotels without competition. The mere fact that you have hotels being in short supply when you have major events in Abuja has to do with hotels being in short supply. Still the market is open. Operators of hotels would always find their on level when it comes to services and tariff. We have a class and we have out target market here in Abuja.”

    According the manager, the hotel intends to build a solid reputation based on personalized service.

    “We serve each of our customers, according to his or her needs. We will not serve the way we serve the other person because you have different personalities. So it is segmented according to the needs of every guest. That is why we go an extra mile to serve you.

    “One of the things we do to give you personalized service is gueridone service, that is, we can prepare a mile with the chef standing in front of you. For example, you ordered for eba, they will just prepare the meal right in front of you. These are part of the innovations we are bringing to the industry.

    “There is a certain level of satisfaction for you to see that the food you are going to eat is not being brought from the back of the house, but it is prepared right in front of you.

    “We also have special delicacies from the different parts of the country. We will also celebrate Nigerian cuisines. We have delicacies like isie ewu, ugba and pepper soup of all kinds. We will also do continental cuisines. We will have specialty dishes from different parts of the world.

    “We are planning to do different theme nights at the pool side areas. In Abuja, we have all types of customers. The theme nights would try to cater for different segments of the market at any given day. One, for example,during India Night, the cuisines and setting for the night would be Indian. The same applies to other nationalities.

    “There are many hotels in Abuja, but there is still space for more. The market is not saturated as some people wrongly believe. Once you are ready to offer something special to the industry, there would be room. That is what we intend to do.

    “We also have a Wifi for our in-house guests. We also have free gym for in-house guests. There is a certain category of massages that is free for in-house guests. We really want to make the difference in Abuja,”he said.

    He vowed that Jades would not be a flash that would fade off a few years after throwing its doors open. This, the hotel intends to achieve through aggressive training of its staff and maintenance of facilities.

    “We are embarking on the training continuously to make our staff understand the need to maintain the facilities.

    The hotel is tastefully designed. It gas extensive facilities for guests like specialty restaurants, bar gymnasium and conference and banqueting facilities. You should know that the hotel the art of relaxation. That informed are going out of our way, to create a new hospitality experience that we are bringing to Abuja.”

     

     

  • Boko Haram ups the ante

    Boko Haram ups the ante

    Monday’s deadly attack on the New Road Motor Park in Kano bore the imprimatur of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram. Ansaru, the sect’s equally deadly splinter group, prefers to abduct those it considers enemies of Islam, and does not hesitate to murder them if the group’s safety is threatened. It is officially estimated that about 22 people died in Monday’s attack and 65 were injured. Eyewitnesses, however, suggested that more than 60 people died and several more were injured in an attack that consumed five luxurious buses. Whether the eyewitnesses exaggerated or security agencies deliberately downplayed the story cannot be immediately determined. But more than 20 dead is as horrendous as more than 60 dead.

    It may be speculative to conclude that the failure of President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to Borno and Yobe States almost two weeks ago virtually guaranteed that Boko Haram would not relent in launching vicious attacks on selected targets. The president had been expected to extract some commitments from the elite in the twin hotbeds of Boko Haram insurgency, or possibly announce initiatives capable of stanching the flow of blood in the entire Northeast and parts of the Northwest. Unfortunately, he neither got any commitment from his hosts nor did he present pragmatic plans to curb the insurgency. Indeed, he unwisely engaged the elite in Damaturu and Maiduguri in bitter and divisive verbal exchange. It was, therefore, inevitable that the sect, splintered or not, would intensify its rage, and the security agencies would respond unorthodoxly and ruthlessly.

    But there is something uncanny about the latest Kano attack. The main Boko Haram group had before now deliberately targeted places of worship, particularly churches, in the hope that it could instigate a sectarian war and throw the country into anarchy. In the end, wiser counsel prevailed with many Nigerians realising that while the sect had targeted Christians, as many Muslims, if not more, also fell to Boko Haram’s bullets and bombs. The sect’s primary objective is the establishment of an Islamic theocracy, but its violence indiscriminately punished Christians and Muslims alike. Now, with the Kano bus park attack, the sect appears to be sinisterly trying to instigate ethnic war through the back door. The government and victims must recognise the sect’s tactical manoeuvrability, and must unite to foil its objectives as they foiled the sectarian catastrophe it plotted.

    It is evident that Boko Haram and its splinters have become more imaginative than the presidency. They are adapting tactics and shifting objectives. Rather than keep doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome, it is time Jonathan tried a more scientific approach to the war against extremism, conciliate moderates in Boko Haram hotbeds, speak and act more presidential without the rashness and imperiousness that have served him poorly, and clean up the dismal and brutal methods of the security agencies that have clearly become counterproductive. It is incumbent on the president to ensure that the tipping point is not reached, for no one can tell when that would be or what tragic consequences that portends for the unity of the country.