Nigeria: Part of Elephant Building, 22 Rooms Burn in Lagos

Property worth millions of Naira were destroyed in Lagos last weekend during different fire outbreaks across the state.
The fire outbreaks affected over 22 rooms, a two‑ bedroom apartment in Osoba Street, Iyana‑ Ipaja axis and a section of Elephant cement building at secretariat, Alausa.
Of the 22 rooms, 10 rooms were razed in the fire outbreak at Badia, Yaba Local Council Development Area, LCDA, 12 in Idimu axis of the state.
Sources said that the fire outbreak in Badia started around 04:00 am on Saturday, while the two‑ bedroom apartment in Osoba Street started at about 02:06 am.
Vanguard gathered that these fire outbreaks were due to electric surge which apparently started in one of the rooms before spreading to others.
In Alausa, Vanguard gathered that the fire which razed a section of the Elephant cement building, ASSBIFI road, Alausa, Ikeja occurred at about 8:00 am on Sunday.
Though, no casualty was recorded but eyewitnesses said that all they saw was the building enveloped by smoke.
Confirming the incidents, Director of Lagos State Fire Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe said; "For the fire outbreak on Saturday, these were among the seven distressed calls the fire officials in the state responded to."
On the Elephant house inferno, Fadipe blamed the cause of the fire on electric surge from one of the split air conditioner in the section. According to him, "we received the distress call at 8:10 am this morning (yesterday) from one of the officers who ran to our Alausa fire station."
He said that the fire affected a department on the fifth floor of the building, adding "it was due to our timely response that helped reduce the effect, if not the damage would have been more ."

Lagos Property: Bungalow on a plot of land at Ologolo Bus Stop, Agungi, Lekki

@ NGN 25,000,000.00

 Address:     Ologolo Bus Stop, Agungi, Lekki Lekki Lagos NigeriaProperty Description An uncompleted bungalow on a plot of land at Ologolo Bus Stop, Agungi, Lekki. Title: Deed of Assignment

 

Lagos Property: 4 bedroom detached house with 2 nos 3 bedroom flats, 2 room bq and 3 shops For Sale

Address: Fatai Irawo Street, Off Lateef Salami Street, Ajao Estate Ikeja Lagos Nigeria

Property Description

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4 bedroom detached house with 2 nos 3 bedroom flats, 2 room bq and 3 shops at Fatai Irawo Street, Off Lateef Salami Street, Ajao Estate. It can be used as a hotel, guest house or maintained Title: C of O

Former Child Star Sues Kanye West for Intellectual Property Theft

If you’ve been around for a while, you’d know the name ‘Ricky Spicer’ lead singer for a 1970 tune. Personally, I hadn’t heard of the song until Kanye West released “Bound 2.” If you’ve listened to Bound 2, chances are you’ve heard Ricky Spicer’s voice.

Ricky Spicer was the 12-year old lead singer for the group called the Ponderosa Twins Plus One in 1969. A year after, they recorded the song “Bound”, the law suit against Kanye West reads.

The now 56-year old Spicer says that his voice can be heard on Kanye’s “Bound 2” at least four times.

The 13-page complaint against Kanye West alleges that "Mr. Spicer's voice is sampled exactly as he recorded it and his voice, altered by the Defendants, is also heard several times."

According to the suit which was filed in New York, Spicer has a copyright on “Bound” and the suit demands exemplary damages and compensation to the tune deemed appropriate by the court.

Stolen land: Nigerian villagers want their land back from Wilmar

This is the second of a series of interviews about resistance to the expansion of industrial oil palm plantations in West and Central Africa.

Members of communities affected by these monoculture plantations and civil society organizations from Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia met in Calabar, Nigeria from 2–5 November 2013. They shared testimonies and analysis of the consequences of the rapid and brutal expansion of monoculture oil palm plantations by multinational companies in different communities and countries.

Lekki outpaces Ikoyi, others as most prized real estate market

With a phenomenal growth driven by a combination of factors including expansion of Lekki-Epe Expressway, proposed Lekki International Airport and Deep Seaport, the Lekki corridor in Lagos has been identified as one of the most prized real estate markets in Nigeria, outpacing Ikoyi and Victoria Island.

Current market trends in the corridor shows its uniqueness in that properties are available for all types of income earners—the high, upper middle, and budget buyers.

Olayinka Omotosho, a chartered surveyor, who gave these hints in his paper titled ‘Real Estate Business Dynamics in 21st Century with Focus on the Lekki-Epe Axis’, noted that this axis has the largest concentration of new wealth on the African continent,  catapulting many families to the rank of the nouveau riche.

Omotosho, who was a lead speaker at the first Lekki-Epe Real Estate and Business Conference in Lagos recently, called for more investments in Lekki in order for investors to create wealth for themselves.

The conference paraded an array of speakers including Kayode Omotosho, executive secretary of the Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN); Bode Araba, principal partner of EPDM Nigeria, and Godspower Omozusi, the principal partner of GP Omozusi & Company, a firm of estate surveyors & valuers.

The lead speaker took a critical look at modern real estate business, saying, “21st Century has often been referred to as the Dot.com era”. He explained that many companies are now able to do more business using the internet, adding that more clients are more knowledgeable of the property market these days.

“The introduction of blogs, products, social media like facebook, twitter and smart phones have allowed for more interaction between professionals and their clients, beyond what was previously obtainable”, he pointed out.

According to him, new technology has brought about interface between clients and professionals, sophisticated marketing, globalization of the local property market and the need for due diligence to verify information given on the internet.

Lagos could accommodate at least 20 shopping malls, says property developer

The construction of shopping malls in Nigeria and the country’s retail potential is a hot topic, as highlighted by discussions at last month’s Africa Property Investment Summit in Johannesburg.

South African food retailer Shoprite Holdings, which has partnered with different property development companies to take the anchor position in a number of these planned malls, is emphasising the demand for mall expansion across the West African country.

According to Hakeem Ogunniran, managing director of UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) in Nigeria, Lagos could effectively hold 20 malls. The rapidly expanding city and commercial hub currently has three large modern shopping malls (with a fourth to be opened soon) and has seen a growing consumer class and a number of international retail companies enter the space.

Ogunniran told How we made it in Africa that Johannesburg, with a population of 4-5m people, has substantially more malls than Lagos. “Lagos with 17-20m could presumably take up to 20-25 malls.”

UPDC, which is also developing in the residential and commercial (office) real estate markets, is looking at the country’s potential in its “B and C grade” cities for formal retail infrastructure, office spaces and residential developments, said Ogunniran.

This is in alignment with what Resilient Africa’s managing director Holden Marshall told How we made it in Africa last month. Resilient Africa is focused specifically on developing smaller shopping centres in Nigeria, of which Shoprite is a partner.

Although Resilient Africa is securing sites to develop malls in the popular retail hubs of Lagos and Abuja, it is also targeting a number of other cities in the country. Warri in the Delta State in southern Nigeria will see the Delta City Mall completed by November next year. Marshall said the company has either secured or is in the process of securing sites in Asaba, Benin City, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Yenagoa and Abeokuta.

According to Marshall, the growing middle class population in these cities is underserviced. “And that’s why the retailers are going there… [They] have got money to spend and are looking for good brands, a nice environment, and a modern facility. And that’s what we are hoping to capture and deliver.”

Warri, where Resilient Africa’s first mall is being built, is seeing rapid growth and has a good income per capita.

“That whole south Delta region of Nigeria, a large part of it is based on an oil economy,” Marshall explained. “All those cities in that region are growing exceptionally fast. In the last three years they have all sort of quadrupled in size. So Warri is quite a substantial city. [There are] indications of a population of 1.5m that is sort of countable but there are a lot more [people].”