Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State said that the Eko Atlantic City on Victoria Island would boost investment and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for Lagos State when it becomes operational.
Ambode said this during an inspection tour of the city on Sunday.
He expressed his satisfaction with the quality of the job done there, adding that his administration was committed to making the project a big success.
“We are committed to making the project a big success and we will give every support that is required so that this project is completed as quickly as possible.
“Like we promised, we are going to grow our IGR in another two years and this is just a sure outlet in achieving that and it will have a multiplier-effect on it,” Ambode said.
The Eko Atlantic City is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government.
The city is located on a 10-million square metre of land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean and it has 8.5-km long of sea wall shoreline protection.
He said the level of infrastructure put in place at the city was good enough for more investors to start building.
“I encourage more investors and those who have taken a stake in the project that the time is now.
“This is a new and bigger version of Victoria Island; we are going to have an energy city and financial hub that is more or less going to run under a free trade zone.”
According to him, the shoreline sea wall protection has been scientifically produced to last the next 1,000 years.
Mr Ade Akinsanya, the state’s Commissioner for Waterfront and Infrastructural Development, said that the project was expected to be completed in 2019.
Akinsanya said that the project was in six phases and about 6.3 million square metres of land had been reclaimed from the 10 million square metre at the end of July.
“Right now, phases one and two are more or less done and the first building, hopefully, will be inaugurated in October.’’
Earlier, the Chairman of the Eko Atlantic City project, Mr Ronald Chagouri, said the city was designed to accommodate 250,000 residents and daily inflow of 150,000 commuters
Chagouri said that the city and its environs would be safe and secure.
“What we did was to reclaim what was proper land in the past but we lost overtime to create a new future.’’
