By David Odama
Governor Abudullahi Sule of Nasarawa state has inaugurated the construction of the Nasarawa Technology Village in Aso Pada, Karu Local Government Area of the state.
The N30 billion project which is comprised of 1,962 housing units estate, technology hub, and other facilities is executed in collaboration with an indigenous firm, ABS Blueprint Consortium, under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Performing the groundbreaking for the project governor explained that the project was executed in line with his administration's development roadmap in the area of housing, technology, employment and industrialization.
While promising to monitor the project to ensure effective execution. the governor expressed delight that the project was being executed by an indigenous consortium adding that the project was fully funded through private partnership arrangements.
He disclosed that the state government would galvanise investors to construct a dedicated link road to the estate, away from the usual gridlock in the area.
"There is a deliberate effort to make Nasarawa State a top investment destination not only in the country but in Africa," Abdullahi said.
The Managing Director, ABS Blueprint Consortium, Mohammed Yamusa said that the 1,962 units Technology Village would comprise of 668 units of One-bedroom flats, 558 units of two bedroom flats, 376 units of two bedroom bungalow as well as 360 units of three bedroom bungalows.
According to Yamusa, the village would have a technology hub with offices for local and international IT companies for the training of more that 2,000 students annually as software engineers, who would be helped to outsource jobs globally that could earn them as high as 3,000 US dollars monthly.
Other features of the technology hub include ICT campus with shared virtual workspaces and an estate-wide Broadband coverage through fibre optic cabling.
He added that the village would also have 5MW independent gas power plant, primary and secondary school, health clinic, fire station, police post, shopping centre among other
The managing director explained that the housing component of the project alone was N22 billion, while the other features including the independent power plant would gulp about N8 billion.
In his remarks,, Managing Director, Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency (NASIDA) Ibrahim Abudullahi said so far, over 500 million US dollar investment has been attracted to Nasarawa State across different sectors.
"The goal is to leverage the proximity of the state to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to create different technology clusters and to develop a technology-driven economy. NNL.