Nigeria’s status as Africa’s largest economy has underlined the need to expedite infrastructure development in the country to meet the needs of its burgeoning economy and to attract investment. With this in mind, the Nigerian government recently announced its N485 trillion (R32.6 trillion) National Integrated Master Plan. The plan will focus on major infrastructure and the projected timeframe is 50 years.
Since 2008, leading South African black-owned engineering consulting firm, GIBB, has supported the development of an integrated masterplan for Greater Port Harcourt.
GIBB Nigeria Director, Johan de Bruyn said Rivers State established a Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority to oversee the development of the new city. “The old city was built to accommodate 400 000 people. Today it houses 1.8 million and a lot of unplanned development has taken place around the old city.”
The masterplan covered two main areas – renewal of the existing Port Harcourt city and building a new city, which will provide new settlement areas for residents.
GIBB produced a layout design for 30 000 residential units with supporting infrastructure such as schools, police and fire stations, hospitals and retail facilities. Construction of the first phase of this township layout (Phase 1A) – to build 2 000 of the 30 000 units – commenced three years ago.
The firm plays an advisory role and works closely with the Authority to oversee successful implementation of the developments. Once tenders are awarded to construction companies, GIBB remains responsible for overall programme management.
In addition GIBB produced detailed planning for a Central City District (CCD). “This is not to replace the Central Business District (CBD) of the old city, rather it will be a secondary business node to complement the old city’s CBD,” explained de Bruyn.
More information from Rowan Sewchurran, Tel: +27(0)11 519 4600 / www.gibb.co.za
