A real estate company, M. I. Okoro and Associates, has announced its partnership with Polaris Bank to build market and relocate about 2,000 electrical and building materials dealers in Rivers State.
According to the Founding Partner, Meckson Okoro, in a briefing with journalists in Lagos, plans are in progress to relocate traders selling in Okija, Port Harcourt to a new market in Iriebe.
The Punch reported that the members of the Electrical Materials Dealers Association that the firm plans to relocate are over 2000 having received a N5bn mortgage funding from Polaris Bank.
According to a Principal Partner at M.I. Okoro & Associates, Dr. Innocent Okoro, 1,720 shops will be developed. Meanwhile, 600 lock-up shops had been built.
He said, “The newly developed shops would soon be available for business activities while the developer continues to construct more shops in stages to provide the electrical materials dealers with a fully settled business environment at the new site, which has been named ‘Promised Land’ by the association.”
He further stated that in the new market, visiting customers can load and off-load goods within the warehouses and transport them to different parts of the country.
In his words, “There will also be restaurants located at various convenient points within the complex so that traders and their customers will find it easy to eat and save time.
“Apart from a toilet facility in several places, electricity supply in the new complex will be a combination of solar and independent energy supply from private sector driven arrangements.”
According to The Punch, he pointed out that the “Promised Land” was equipped with banking halls and other offices, whereas Okija lacked such facilities.
Polaris Bank Limited partnered with M. I. Okoro & Associates in order to ensure that the movement of the Electrical Dealers Association to its permanent site becomes a reality, Okoro said.
While addressing the economic implication of the relocation, he said that it will unlock the latent worth of the land and assets inside and outside the complex’s immediate surroundings.
He said, “There would be an increase in terms of capital and rental values because the traders’ presence at the new location would act as a pull on to other businesses.”
