Why N26bn pilot land swap project is at snail speed

One of the reasons for the slow pace of work is disagreements over designs. Government and the investor did not collaborate at the design stage of the project leading to disagreements at the execution stage, a senior FCTA official said.The second reason, according to the Project Director, Mr Tony Oguchi is the terrain. He said […]

One of the reasons for the slow pace of work is disagreements over designs. Government and the investor did not collaborate at the design stage of the project leading to disagreements at the execution stage, a senior FCTA official said.
The second reason, according to the Project Director, Mr Tony Oguchi is the terrain. He said after signing the contract and work was to start, it was realized that initial quotations for the project were too cost involving. This he said if executed would render the product, that is houses that will be for sale too dear for uptakers. The only option is to redo the engineering work in a cost saving way. For this, Capital Symonds, a UK engineering firm was called upon to redo a plan that suits the terrain and at the same time reduces costs.
Another holdup is the question of compensation. Oguchi said even though his firm has tackled compensation matters in the district, one of them still poses a headache. This has to do with the access road that links the district with the AYA-Nyanya highway. According to him this is responsibility of government.
He said considering that the project is multi-billion naira and private, there is no room for cost variation, hence the investor has no alternative than redesign the project. “If we had gone ahead with the initial design, it would have cost us 100 percent more. If we develop a plot and sell it at ridiculous price, it defeats the vision of the minister for land swap,” he explained.
Oguchi who insisted that government has been cooperative said another snag is absence of a template for the project because it is new in Nigeria.
He said work is ongoing on the site stressing that the project is not beyond the investor’s capacity. He said, “We’ve done our site clearing — 60 percent of road clearing has been done. Infrastructure Bank is our transaction adviser,” the Project Director stated. He said the three-kilometer spine road of the district has been cleared. The project which is to be delivered in four phases has got its engineering designs approved by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA)’s department of engineering.
“We now have to build in the lag because of unforeseen circumstances but our project will be delivered in the next four years,” he assured.
The model N26 billion land-for-infrastructure project was called Dallas Carraway District. The apparently non-indigenous name was imported from America – name of the first black mayor of Dallas, Dwaine Carraway. Even at that time, critics of government postulated that the project was either unachievable or an out-of-reach-of-the-ordinary person. But the FCT minister, Bala Mohammed was upbeat as he reeled out advantages of the project.

Facilities
Dallas Carraway District was designed to have nine-hole golf course with potential for adjoining site to provide land to create an 18-hole golf course, a school, police station, fire service station and car parking facilities. The place was to have residential areas grouped into smaller communities and villas with stunning views over the valleys in the undulating terrain.
There was to be green spaces which were soft-landscaped parks to provide green lounges and recreational areas for the community as well as central area to house a mosque, church, shopping mall, farmers’ market and health centre. All this was at no cost to government because government provided the needed land.
The land swap deal at the time was described as the biggest inflow of investments to Nigeria. The FCT minister said the territory would attract N500 billion from investment in few years under the land swap policy.
The Executive Secretary of FCDA, Adamu Ismaila stated that authorities took great care and caution in conceptualization of the project, selection of the investor and negotiation of the transactions.
FCT minister had constituted a committee to study and make recommendations on its feasibility and suitable site location. He assured that all obstacles would be removed to make way for a smooth take-off and success of the project.
The district covers 222 hectares. A six-year completion time was given for the project. Plethora Realty and Facility Managers Limited was the investor while Aso Hills Infrastructure Limited was the developer. It was expected that the company would take six months to complete the engineering design and another three months for the take off of actual physical construction on the site. After that stage, the project would be executed in four phases spreading over a cumulative period of six years.
But when it was time to execute the project, the design handed the developer by FCTA was faulted, senior FCTA official said. What was turned in by the firm to replace what was done by FCTA was equally rejected by FCTA. This undermined the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) resulting in suspension of works on the project at some time.
Though we could not lay hands on official documents, our reporter spotted men at work in the site office located on top of a hill in the district last week.

Another land swap deal
 Though the fruits of the first land swap project had not been harvested yet, government on March 2, 2015 launched another land swap programme. The new land swap launched by Vice President Namadi Sambo on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan was designed to cost $6 billion of investment.
The investment covers land area of 3,886 hectares, amounting to 15 percent of FCC and less than 0.50 percent of the FCT.
Unlike the pilot programme, this one is a medley of both local and international investors comprising 15 companies shortlisted for the execution the project. They include: Urban Shelter Infrastructure Limited, System Property Development Company Limited, Afri-International Projects Limited, BGD Properties Limited, Gilmore Engineering Company Limited and AM-PM Global Network Limited.
  Others are: Dangote Group, Ketti East Infrastructure Limited, Bolmus Nigeria Limited, Deep Earth Nigeria Limited, Dayspring Limited, Haitong Limited, Rosehill Group and Waru-Pozema District Infrastructure Limited.
When Daily Trust visited one of the districts covered in the land swap scheme in phase iv FCC last week, no work, no machine buzzed.
The coordinator of Abuja Infrastructure Investment Centre (AIIC), Mr Faruk Sani said appropriate legal and institutional safeguards have been instituted to ensure the new land swap deal is successful.
According to him, one of the ways was to involve the developers from the design stage of the project. He said FCDA will not have issues with the developers because all the designs are already with it.
Supervision of the project, he said is to be at three levels. The technical negotiation committee headed by a director from FCDA has a role to play just as the supervising consultant is there. The consultant will supervise the land use plan of one district to ensure there is harmony and alignment between the two sectors of the district. Two developers are paired to work on a district which is divided into two sectors – a developer to a sector.
On the third level, Sani said there is a coordinating planner who is to supervise the supervising planner as well as advise the technical committee. The coordinating planner ensures the primary works are in line with the Abuja master plan and see that there is harmony between sectors of districts.
On benefits of land swap to investors, the AIIC coordinator maintained that investors will get adequate returns on their investments through land given to them. Details were not available but Faruk said each investor gets specific hectarege of land for real estate development. These investors are at liberty to sell the land or build houses on the land and sell or manage the developed land by themselves.
Sani said the mass of land given to a developer is dependent on the investor’s input in terms of number of road kilometers constructed, amount of money investor is required to put in. All this is partly affected by the terrain of the district.

Call for scrap of land swap
Last Monday, the dissatisfaction with land swap resurfaced. Original inhabitants of Abuja who go by name Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja (OIDA) called on the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the programme when he becomes president next month.
The body termed land swap a “conduit pipe for allocation of massive lands to cronies of the outgoing Peoples Democratic Party-led federal government.” The president of OIDA, Pastor Danladi Jeji called on the president-elect to audit land allocations done by the Abuja Geographic and Information Systems (AGIS).
Jeji decried land-grab, demolition of natives’ houses, non-compensation for compulsorily acquired lands and massive sacking of villages for land acquisition by the PDP-led federal government.
But the AIIC coordinator Sani described Jeji’s action as mischievous saying government has been transparent in its land swap policy, stressing that affected communities have not had issues with government concerning land swap.
Land swap said to be the first ever land-for-infrastructure exchange in the West African sub-region driven by Public-Private-Partnership initiative was designed to open up new districts where the private sector would be made to provide the required infrastructure in the districts in exchange for 60 percent of buildable plots in the district, while 40 percent is retained by FCTA for allocation.