The deal which was brokered by the estate surveying firm of M.I. Okoro & Associates, was signed by the President of Phones & Allied Dealers Association, PAPDA, Ikeja, Chief Godfrey Iyke Nwosu and the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Graceland Channels Limited, Pastor Nat Omoruyi at a brief ceremony held at the Ikoyi, Lagos office of M.I. Okoro & Associates.
Speaking at the contract signing ceremony, Chief Meckson Okoro whose firm also coordinated the development of the Auto Spare Parts Markets, ASPAMDA at the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, said the bulk purchase of 2,500 lock-up shops by the traders is an expression of confidence in the capacity of the Imo State Government and concessionaire to deliver the project on schedule.
Flaunting the advantages of investing in the market, Okoro who is the marketing consultant, described the project as a “think home investment” because Igbos who have been busy developing other parts of the country, can now come home and do business with other Nigerians and the international community in Igboland.
He explained that its location at a border town central to Anambra, Delta, Enugu, Rivers and Imo states, makes the market more attractive to investors.
“The development is the first of its kind in any part of South East of Nigeria aimed at re-energizing the economic activities of eastern Nigeria. It is expected to create countless jobs and other creative entrepreneurial activities that are capable of reducing the high rate of youth restiveness and crime that have been traced to unemployment as well as releasing the potential values of any available piece of land in the immediate environment and neighbouring states because the market is expected to play host to over two million people doing business in the market city.
The teeming population that would come from all parts of Nigeria and the world, would energize demands for land for various developmental projects like housing estates, warehousing complexes, hotels, industrial and allied activities, schools and colleges and other activities that may require the use of land. This will surely increase the demand for land purchase and expected increase on the value of land in these areas “ he said.
Ancillary facilities
On completion, the market which is sited on a 28.097 hectares of land, will have about 10,000 lock-up and open shops and 3,000 housing units.
Prominent ancillary facilities earmarked for the scheme include banks, a trailer park, a car mart, food court, ample car parks, a clinic, creche and a good road network. Others are a modern police station, fire stations, sewage treatment plants, waste management networks and international and medium sized hotels. “At completion, this plaza will be the biggest, most modern type of market in Nigeria and Africa, “he boasted.
Also speaking at the ceremony, the PAPDA President, Chief Iyke Nwosu who noted that majority of Ndigbo have investments outside the region, said his group decided to buy into the market project to redress this trend.
Market project
“If Igbos can put 30 percent of the investments in the East, it will change a lot of things in Igboland,” he said and called on other Nigerians to reciprocate the way Igbos have carried out their businesses in other parts of the country by investing in Heartland Gateway International Market.
In his own speech, the CEO of Graceland Channels, Pastor Nat Omoruyi, disclosed that construction work has reached an advanced level in the market. He commended the Imo State Government for buying into the public private partnership project
Heartland Gateway Inter-national market is the first phase of the development of Mgbidi Commercial City as mandated by the Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha. The second phase is the development of 3,000 housing units of different house types. The market would be fireproof. In other words, the shops would be built with concrete and rods to prevent the occurrence of fire disasters.
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