The efforts of the Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC) to create new and sustainable towns and communities through property investment and development is now yielding fruits as the state government’s property development agency generated about N2.5 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of the year.
The resuscitated state-owned property and investment corporation raised its revenue target for the year 2014 to N10 billion, having commenced massive construction of housing units in various estates across the state.
The OPIC has also clawed back over 350 hectares of land running into several billions of naira which were acquired in Agbara industrial and residential estates to government, just as it has embarked on massive housing development in all the three senatorial districts of the state.
Speaking with BusinessDay in Abeokuta at the weekend, Babajide Odusolu, OPIC managing director, attributed the feat recorded in revenue drive and generation to the state government to massive infrastructural development that is taking place across the state which has also prompted influx of investors into the state’s economy.
Odusolu, who doubles as special adviser to the state governor on property and investment, said that creation of new and sustainable towns and communities under Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s urban renewal and new development scheme has helped create world standard communities that positively affect the state’s economy and generate more to state coffers.
He noted that OPIC mandate to deliver at least 100 housing units cumulatively would not only shore up government earnings, but would also bridge housing deficit in the state and thereby providing affordable housing that would domesticate investors and workers that are working in the state but living outside the state.
He said, “We have a medium-term plan for this year; we are going to do at least a hundred housing units cumulatively and then every year thereafter, we expect to be doing multiple of that until we are able to contribute our quota towards housing shortfall and deficit”.
On the illegal activities of land grabbers, Odusolu said the government had been able to claw back over 350 hectares of land in the Agbara estates, adding that the major focus of the corporation is to create an enabling environment for investors who will, in return, favour the state’s economy through tariffs and taxes.
RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta
