MESSRS New FESTAC Property Development Company is leading four other firms to develop the second phase of FESTAC Town under a Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Also named as co-developers at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday are: PW Nigeria limited, LCC Nigeria Ltd, Enaco Nigeria Ltd and Funtaj, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Ama Pepple said.
Ms Pepple, who spoke in the company of her colleagues Labaran Maku (Information), Abba Moro (Interior), told reporters after the FEC meeting, said her ministry had earlier presented a memo to FEC, proposing the development of FESTAC Phase II on the remaining part of the land acquired for the housing scheme in 1977.
According to her, the Federal Government will generate N25.7 billion. The developer will manage the facility for 30 years under a three-year moratorium period to enable the concessionaire begin and stabilise with the project. The government is also expected to earn a yearly income of N150 million as ground rent.
She said the government had in 1977 acquired 2,240 hectares to the develop a new city to host Africa and the Black Diaspora in the first-ever African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC), pointing out that the present FESTAC was developed on a section of the expansive parcel of land.
The minister said: “We estimate that when it is completely reclaimed and sand filled, because it is a swampy area that we will be able to create at least 7000 plots and then the new area FESTAC Phase II will be like a new city with houses, shopping malls, schools, police station, health centers among others.
“We also expect that a lot of money will accrue from it. It has been presented to Council before, but it was turned down because at the time Council believed that the amount that would have accrued to the government that was put at N10.6 billion, it was too small considering the size of the plot and the fact that it is Lagos. This was in 2006.”
But she explained that the new memo submitted to FEC has been reworked with a new cost and revenue which was eventually approved.
The minister said: “We worked on it again and we looked at what it will cost the company to reclaim the land and the figure that we came up with was N25.7 billion. It is going to be concessioned over a 30 year period.
“And we also expect that in addition to the N25.7 billion that will accrue over the 30 year period, that we will also get in a year about N150 million in ground rent, but this is not a firm figure. This is just an estimate because it can go up and it can go down depending on the economic environment that we find ourselves.”
She also disclosed that President Goodluck Jonathan has approved a plan for the ministry to begin some level of enforcement to sanitise the already developed section of FESTAC through the provision of basic infrastructure.
Moro said the government has a plan to introduce an e-prison concept to check regular jail breaks, which has been fuelled to be in collusion with corrupt prison officials.
“As at today, 38,000 persons are currently awaiting trials while the total number of prisoners in the Nigerian prisons is 54, 000,” he said.
Stressing that the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) was still operating on the basis of 1963 Prisons Act, which is out-dated, he said that a new bill has been sent to the National Assembly to update the law.
The bill, according to him, will address some of the teething problems the prison system is encountering in Nigeria and also go further to classify the nature of crimes and appropriate sanctions.
“One of the highlights is the proper categorisation of crimes and punishments, including suspended sentence and community service,” he said.
Speaking on his ministry’s activities for last year, Moro said the government is set to introduce electronic surveillance at the borders and restrategise its new visa policy to remove bottlenecks in issuance.
He said the present PPP arrangement in the new policy for the production of passports has helped to reduce the long queues experienced in the past.
Moro warned unsuspecting applicants to ignore any website advertising employment on behalf of the ministry as there is no on-going recruitment.
According to him, some of the people involved in the employment racket have been arrested and prosecuted with one of them given seven years jail term.
