Benue partners Cosgrove to build smart estate in Abuja
On Thursday, July 15, 2021, officials of the Benue State Government, Cosgrove and other stakeholders met at the official ground-breaking ceremony of “Smart Estate” development at Mabushi, Abuja, by the Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC) in collaboration with Cosgrove Investment Limited.
The project is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the Benue State Government through the BIPC and Cosgrove, one of the big players in the Abuja innovative real estate sector.
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cosgrove, Umar Abdullahi, represented by the Chief Technical Officer, Engr Baba Kalli, said the company was the obvious choice for the property because of its reputation in innovative real estate development in the FCT.
Abdullahi said, “Our strategic strength integrating technology and automation in construction enhances user experience in the built-up space and creates high yield assets by way of the homes constructed.”
Features of the proposed estate: According to him, the sprawling estate will sit on 1.29 hectares in Mabushi District and will be home to 36 stateof-the-art smart luxury homes and that the estate will have fibre to the home supported by full fibre optic cabling.
Other features include automatic number plate recognition at the gate (Cosgrove is the first company to offer this in Nigeria).
The smart estate will have HD CCTV cameras with AI capabilities managed from the Cosgrove central security hub to ensure safety.
In addition, all homes will have spacious rooms with ensuite conveniences, as well as customisable rooms for home gym or cinema should the homeowner desire.
Abdullahi stated that Cosgrove’s unique selling point was their “strength in developing smart homes in smart estates. And homes in this Mabushi development will come equipped with our signature automation systems to not only give residents superlative living experience, but ensure outstanding returns on investment for the investor BIPC and its stakeholders.”
For the Cosgrove chairman, every real estate investor knows that the key to the value of every asset is “that axiom ‘Location! Location!! Location!!!’ Which this site has in spades - with its proximity to strategic locations within and around the FCT - the airport, major shopping malls, recreational centres, just to list a few.”
BIPC foresees huge returns
For the Benue State Government, this is a long-awaited opportunity as it could not develop the land which it acquired about 20 years ago.
Adapting government-private sector initiative development was the best option for the state government as speakers at the event commended the board of BIPC for deeming it necessary to develop the land.
The Chairman of BIPC, Mr Mike Mku, said, “If the management had initiated this long ago, by now BIPC would have had a source of income from this estate.
“Today marks a milestone with our property development in the real estate development sector because this is one of our star projects and we are looking forward to shaping Abuja.
“This property is introducing a completely new development in luxury living in Abuja. The introduction of the facility to recognise car number plates is the first of its kind in Abuja. In the estate, all the cars owned by residents will be captured by the CCTV as the owners drive in. The gate recognises the number and lets the driver in. This is also part of security. The security situation in the country is so bad that everybody is looking for ways of preserving and looking after their safety, and this is one of the safety measures we are going to introduce.”
According to him, the state is excited because “we have had this property for over 20 years and we have not really been able to put anything on ground. But today with an international expert company like Cosgrove we are going to make it in property development.”