Africa’s first eco-friendly smart business city is set to be built within the Lekki-Epe axis of Lagos. The Imperial International Business City (IIBC), which is to be cited on about 200 hectares of sand-filled land, will bring together two major components of the ideal futuristic city- smart city-wide communication and monitoring systems, and an emphasis on environmentally friendly layouts and structures.
The Imperial City project is to be executed through a partnership between the Elegushi Royal Family and private developers, Channeldrill Resources Limited. Its initiators say that work on the project, which will be financed to the tune of $300 million by British Foreign Direct Investment, will begin in the second quarter of next year.
A combination of modern technological and eco-friendly features could make the Imperial City a model hub for future business districts in Nigeria and the African continent as a whole. The proposed plans for the city include a system for monitoring and providing data on traffic flow, smart emergency response systems, and the connection of smart meters to an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), to which devices forming part of Home Area Networks (HANs) for individual homes will also be linked. Electricity transmission to homes will be moderated by a technology which helps to adjust power distribution in accordance with power consumption levels at various times of the day. A fibre optic cable and cloud-based communication network are amenities to be provided as well.
The Imperial City’s environment could be something to experience too, with waterways and lakes planned to fit into an impressive landscape that will also include a mini-course and shopping mall. Electricity will be generated from a gas fired source, and cooking gas supplied to households via a network of pipes.
For all of its promise, it will take a while before the Imperial City actually begins to assume the form of an emerging town. The land reclamation process might take up to two years to complete, and construction, probably longer still. But portions of the future city are already up for sale, and expectations for the project will rise as structures begin to take the place of water-filled space.
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