The leadership of the Computer and Allied Product Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN) has opened up on a sealed deal with the Lagos State Government to finally relocate businesses in Ikeja Computer Village to the emerging largest technology market cluster, the ICT Park at Katangowa in Lagos.
President of CAPDAN, Chief Ahmed Ojukutu, in an interview recalled that the issue of leaving Ikeja due to space constrains has been on the table for 12 years now, however, all stakeholders have just sealed a concession agreement between the concessioner-developer and Lagos State Government.
While confirming that CAPDAN witnessed the signing ceremony, Ojukutut described the development as a “bold step in laying the foundation for what is about to come.”
Construction specifications show that the future ICT Park is envisioned to be located on a 21-hectares of land at Agbado Oke-Odo CDA in Alimosho LGA, but no date has been set for its completion.
He averred that “That is a very bold step laying the foundation for what is about to come. Moving to the next level, we will be working on a relationship between us and the developer and the government to look at this instance and make things work out so the issue of moving to Katangowa is understood by us.
He assured that “What is paramount to us as an association is everybody in the present day Computer Village, so that even that woman that is squatting with somebody and the man with a small table will be factored in into the movement. That is what can make us have our economy of scale that we have right now and that is the position that we have”.
According to a government spokesperson on the deal, the new development is in line with the Smart City Scheme which is coming to transform the state into a technology-driven mega city that manages assets and resources efficiently.
“That is a very bold step laying the foundation for what is about to come. Moving to the next level, we will be working on a relationship between us and the developer and the government to look at this instance and make things work out so the issue of moving to Katangowa is understood by us”,
Continuing, Ojukutu averred that “This and many more. So we are seeing Nigerian ICT sector to be driven with this ICT Park going forward. What this is going to create is that environment structured and planned for ICT. That is our expectation and we are expecting that hub to be the key to national development.”
Additional reports by Technology Times showed that both members and the leadership of CAPDAN are on same page of understanding with the state government on the sealed move to leave Ikeja Computer Village for Katangowa in Lagos.
Business Hilights can authoritatively report that daily turnover in Computer Village, Ikeja is about N1.5 billion with thousands of cash transactions and verifiable over 125,000 online transactions.
