Abia State Governor, His Excellency, Dr. Alex Otti, OFR, says that now is the right time to invest in the Real Estate Sector of the State. Governor Otti stated this on Tuesday, 29th April, during a business meeting with the management team of Capital City Development Ltd, a Real Estate Company with headquarters in Port Harcourt led by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), Arc. Uche Arunsi Kalu.
Governor Otti who noted that “everything about the public sector, ends up with the Private Sector,” explained that part of what his Government is doing is to open up the State and create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
Dr. Otti revealed that the real estate sector of Abia State holds a lot of prospects and potentials and emphasized the importance of getting the location right, in terms of infrastructure, as defined by human beings who can live and afford the location.
“In Real Estate, once you get the location right, every other thing falls in place. A lot of times, people misunderstand location to mean a spot or a place; yes, it is a spot and a place, but it is more than that. It is the environment; it is the infrastructure; it is the access, and it is that environment defined by human beings.
“If you have a beautiful location and you don’t have people who would live and afford that location, then, it is not the right location,” Governor Otti stated.
He mentioned some of the things that needed to be put in place to make locations attractive, which he described as part of the reasons his administration has not been aggressive about real estate development which include access, (good road network), clean environment, and other enablers like good schools, good hospitals, security, etc. The Governor said that his administration has focused more on creating an enabling environment in the last 23 months, acknowledging that, although appreciable effort has been made in that regard, but more improvements are needed.
“We believe that this is the right time to begin to think of real estate investments. Before now, people had approached us from South Africa and other parts of the world. We have not been too responsive,” the Governor stated.
The State’s Chief Executive disclosed some of the real estate projects his administration is already working on in Umuahia valley view estate and another estate modelled after the international village in Rwanda, among others. He further disclosed that a lot of people who left Abia before now are relocating back, hence, the need to develop more estate to accommodate them and other people coming into Abia to settle for work and business.
He gave the Capital City Development the option of identifying a land or location they may want to develop while the State allocates the land to them as her own equity or buying land while the government issues them a Certificate of Occupancy and then going ahead with their business.
He advocated for a structured payment system for people like civil servants and low-income earners who may not have the money to pay at once.
Governor Otti directed further engagement with the Government’s team and thanked the Capital City Development Ltd for coming to invest in Abia State.
Earlier in his speech, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Capital City Development Ltd, Arc. Uche Arunsi Kalu, who hails from Abia State, thanked Governor Otti for his transformational leadership in Abia State, which has removed the barriers that prevented them from coming to Abia to Invest before now, having done well in neighboring Rivers State, where they have their Company’s headquarters.
Recalling his ugly experience in the past, the Abia-born Real Estate mogul with presence in 14 States of the federation said, “Before your election, sir, I visited Aba; I almost wept. I came with my wife, she came to shop…We couldn’t even access the market. We asked ourselves in our hotel room, ‘when will it be Abia’s turn’? We’ve gone to Akwa Ibom, we saw what happened there. When I see what you are doing in Abia, I am extremely grateful personally and I pray that God will give you more wisdom, energy and strength to continue doing the things you have been doing.
The Capital City Development LTD Boss said that they wanted to scale up their business, having consistently maintained a turnover running into tens of billions for some years and having considered many locations for the scale-up, they asked themselves why not Abia, looking at what the Governor is doing. “When we looked at all and what is going on in Abia State, I asked myself, why not Abia”?
In her vote of thanks, the company Director and wife of the MD/CEO Mrs. Nkwai Z. Kalu joined the husband in thanking Governor Otti for changing the story of Abia, noting that they couldn’t recognize some of the places anymore, having stopped coming to shop in Aba some years back because of lack of access. She commended the wife of the Governor, Her Excellency, Mrs. Priscilla Otti, for her humanitarian works and empowerment programmes in the State, which she said that, they have been following. She went on to donate 100 quality Ankara Wrappers to support the good works of the First Lady.
The First Lady who was called on to receive the gifts thanked them for their kind gesture, praying God to bless them more.
The meeting between the Government and the Capital City Development Ltd was facilitated by the Deputy Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Austin Okezie Mmeregini.
The Governor was joined in the meeting by his Principal Secretary and Chief Strategy Officer of the Abia State Governor, Mr. Chinenye Mba Uzoukwu, and the Technical Assistant to the Governor, Mr. Charles Egonye.
Ctz. UKOHA NJOKU UKOHA
Chief Press Secretary to the Executive Governor of Abia State.
30-04-2025.