More Nigerian Banks are planning to relocate their Headquarters to Eko Atlantic City after being stunned by First Banks groundbreaking ceremony of its Headquarters in the futuristic city.
FirstBank of Nigeria recently performed the groundbreaking ceremony of its iconic Headquarters in Eko Atlantic city, Lagos a 43 story building going up to 252 meters with the antenna.
It had been on the drawing board for so long that most people thought constructing the iconic FirstBank Headquarters building in Eko Atlantic was a pipe dream.
Sources tell MoneyCentral that at least 3 other major banks have either rushed to buy land or are dusting up their earlier building plans and designs, for those that owned land in the city before now.
“One of the Tier-One banks is planning a 40 story building in Eko Atlantic,” a source familiar with the matter told MoneyCentral.
“The banks were kind of blindsided by First Bank and don’t want to be left behind.”
One major Nigerian bank that is confirmed to already have a major plot in Eko Atlantic city is Access Bank.
The Access Bank site is said to be directly opposite the First bank Headquarters in the city.
Access Bank is expected to perform its groundbreaking sometime in the next 2-years due to the untimely death of its major shareholder Herbert Wigwe.
“It is not their priority at the moment unfortunately,” a major developer at the city said.
Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote predicted at the FirstBank groundbreaking ceremony that other banks will follow now that FirstBank had rolled the ball.
“A lot of banks will now come to open their headquarters in the new financial center of Lagos, Eko Atlantic,” Dangote said.
Eko Atlantic City where the FirstBank headquarters building is located, is an entire new $6 billion coastal city being built on Victoria Island adjacent to Lagos, Nigeria.
Other major building projects in the city include a new United States (U.S.) consulate that will cost $537 million.
MTN Nigeria is also set to build a new office tower in Eko Atlantic City, a new district in Lagos, to serve as its headquarters in the country, according to information seen by MoneyCentral.
MTN which is Nigeria’s largest telecommunications company had earlier announced, its desire to plant deeper and more permanent roots in Nigeria.
“We have initiated plans to commission a purpose-built, state of the art MTN Head Office, designed to act as a central hub for our network, a catalyst for creativity and innovation, and a showcase for the flexible working structures that are driving efficiency gains in this new normal working environment,” MTN said.
Eko Atlantic City recently released a video showing there were 22 ongoing projects in the city, with 7 already completed ones ranging from high-rises to a data center.
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