21 STOREY SMART COMPLEX - A'IBOM IS SET FOR WORLD BUSINESSES

By: Grace Akpan

It is a cynosure of all eyes, the tallest architectural masterpiece in the South/South region of Nigeria, the most ICT compliant intelligence structure, the 21 storey smart office complex, located in the central business district of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, set to host any known corporate organization or world class company in the Nigeria Oil and Gas industry.

With the Tower as high as 108.8 meters, the 21 storey Five Star business accommodation occupies a construction area of 18, 639.50 meters square on a massive site area of 48,200.00 meters square, making room for a 500 capacity car park.

The visionary Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, burning with the desire to attract huge volumes of Foreign Direct Investments, FDI, to Akwa Ibom and catapult the state into an investment hub of Nigeria, undertook the 21 storey building, a flagship of his government, as a major catalyst in his envisioned economic renaissance.

For years, Akwa Ibom suffered from dearth of international standard office accommodations for world class corporate organizations as well as International Oil Companies, IOCs, some of which operate in the state but with operational base and headquarters in other cities, a situation which deprived the state of huge internally generated revenues, IGR.

As a leader committed to the overall development of the state in all sectors, Governor Emmanuel saw the turn-key high rise office building as a bait for the oil companies which hitherto laid claims to lack of suitable business accommodations as the major hindrance to the relocation of their headquarters and operational base to Akwa Ibom State.

This much may have accounted to the near lack of presence of any substantial Federal establishment in the oil and gas sector in Akwa Ibom State since creation over 33 years ago. As the hen that lays the golden egg, Akwa Ibom, the largest oil producing state in Nigeria contributing large chunk of revenue to the Federation account from its crude oil, could not boast of a single oil depot, an office of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources, DPR or the head office of any of the oil companies exploiting the State's rich oil reserves.

Coming with all the attractions and safety mechanism expected of a smart building anywhere in the world, the 21 storey building is a dream come true in the sustainable infrastructural drive of the Governor Udom Emmanuel administration. The project which kicked off on 17th January, 2018 with a two year work term is scheduled for completion by the end of this year, precisely on 17th December, 2020.

The Mega project handled by a Turkish construction company, VKS, is a magical architectural design on land, the first of its kind in Nigeria which ongoing work is providing direct and indirect job opportunities to the people of Akwa Ibom State and which on completion will not only generate employment - skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled, to the teeming youths of the state but will contribute to the area development as well as house oil and gas companies and serve as a ready haven for investors.

The Tower which has added aesthetics to the landscape of Akwa Ibom will run with 24 hours power supply and contains all necessary facilities and equipment of a smart building including: 4 elevators, 2 emergency exit, fire protection sensors and aviation wing. The ground floor is designed to accommodate banks and canteens while the mechanical floor controls sewage and takes care of waste disposal.

From the second to the twentieth floor seamless office accommodations are provided to end - users while the twenty-one floor is a terrace where guests, tourists and investors can stand to have a glimpse of the beautiful landscape of the capital city.

It is worthy of mention that, the smart building has an access control with such components like, the card reader, biometric control keypads, central stand-alone server workstation, electric lock hardware cabling for doors, boom barrier for cars, automated cards, automated turnstiles, fire protected doors and time attendance readers.

For the fire system, the tower boasts of: fire electric pumps, diesel pump backup, Fire extinguisher hose real, technical rooms E30 cabling for S90 fire, protection sprinkler system, intelligent smoke detectors and fire alarm panel connected to the CCTV room. The state-of-the-art communication gadgets of the intelligence building are in place with all accessories of a public address system including: speaker, combine audio+media via sms for evacuation, control station, UPS and amplifiers.

Other unique features of the super imposing edifice are the Led lighting, Touchscreen control KNX occupancy and motion sensors, Digitally addressed lighting interface(DALI), network switch for outdoor lighting motion sensor, Solar fitted nano type facade panel to power facade light at night as well as Perimeter fence light.

Quite expected of a Five Star business environment, the 21 storey smart building makes room for video conferencing, thus putting in place necessary cameras and efficiently managed workstation. With a chiller system of chilled water sensor, infrared toilet system, automated facade sprinklers and cleaner and automated Rain gage.

With Humidity and temperature sensors in all the floors, the smart office complex stamps out itself as truly an intelligence building with no comparison in the south/south region of Nigeria.

Already, Governor Udom Emmanuel has put up Akwa Ibom as first among equal in all sectors such as, Agriculture, Aviation, Healthcare, Education, Human capital development, Power, entrepreneural development and even in the current fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

It is notable that with the very friendly government policies, so many investors have been attracted to Akwa Ibom while some others such as ExxonMobil and Black Rhino have gone ahead to register their intent to share in the opulence of the 21 storey commercial business accommodation.

And so, with a peaceful environment, coupled with warm and friendly people, rich cultural heritage, internationaly acclaimed cuisines, abundant natural endowments and resources, mega projects, including the 21 storey smart building, it can only be concluded that, Akwa Ibom is ready and set to host world businesses.

© Grace Akpan, Ministry of Information, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, May 2020

Wow

Akwa Ibom ayaya

Afanja will not like this ! I this is the next Mobil headquarter....

No current pics of the actual building?

This is great

Wow, we need more of this

Marine54:
Afanja will not like this ! I this is the next Mobil headquarter....

Cocoa House - Ibadan - 26floors - 1965

AJE House - Ibadan - 12floors - 1960

The Broking House - Ibadan - 10floors - 1987

Cooperative Building - Ibadan - 10floors - 1957


It's not new to us.

Nice

Marine54:
Afanja will not like this ! I this is the next Mobil headquarter....

Is akwa ibom south east? Chineke stop disgracing us abeg

Akwa ibom to the world! The beginning of the best. Emotions wont get the work done. Only hardwork

I'm Yoruba, But I'm so happy about this, this is the kind of Development I want to see in every part of Nigeria!

One thing we need to put in consideration again is "City Planning"

We can't be building anyhow without proper city Planning with good road network, Infact all Nigeria city should be Replan from scratch again!!


Here's a Picture of Barcelona, just take a look at the beautiful well Planned city!

MinorityOpinion:


Is akwa ibom south east? Chineke stop disgracing us abeg

Shup up ! I am a proud Akwa ibom man by THE GRACE OF GOD !

Nice one

I hope is not that glorified building around cbn office you are hyping like this.That box

Sammy07:


Cocoa House - Ibadan - 26floors - 1965

AJE House - Ibadan - 12floors - 1960

The Broking House - Ibadan - 10floors - 1987

Cooperative Building - Ibadan - 10floors - 1957


It's not new.

There'll be no more stealing of oil and positions in oil companies by Afanja when Exxmobil locates thier headquarter from lagos to Uyo Akwa Ibom state .

The pictures is good but let me ask this, what is the benefits of this building to Akwa ibom people?
You build 21st story for Mobil and the pay you by donating used vehicles to you.
I think this money supposed channel into youth empowerment/ employment.
Akwa ibom has the highest crude oil now in the country but it has the largest unemployed youths in Niger-Delta according to statistics.
If I may also ask, what has Akwa ibom benefited from Mobil?
To me ooo, the money for this building can train and equip more than 15000 Akwaibomite .
We can't be hungry as a state but build a 21st story for a company that net worth can buy the state. Let's invest in youths, let's invest in women an elders.
I believe the state can do this ,yes we can do it.

We know those that will not like this good news, Biafra is on the move

Marine54:
Shup up ! I am a proud Akwa ibom man by THE GRACE OF GOD !

Then we need not to fight

MinorityOpinion:


Then we need not to fight

The thing be sai , any body where disagree with una, una dey quick to tag that person ibo..

Marine54:
The thing be sai , any body where disagree with una, una dey quick to tag that person ibo..

NO we and ibos are same now.

How does the state intend to utilize it's abundant resources to improve livelihood of its citizens ?

These constructions grant mainly labor jobs to locals.

kudos to our amiable governor, how about the Ibaka sea Port that's the most important project that will provide jobs and revenue

How much

Ukpafi:
The pictures is good but let me ask this, what is the benefits of this building to Akwa ibom people?
You build 21st story for Mobil and the pay you by donating used vehicles to you.
I think this money supposed channel into youth empowerment/ employment.
Akwa ibom has the highest crude oil now in the country but it has the largest unemployed youths in Niger-Delta according to statistics.
If I may also ask, what has Akwa ibom benefited from Mobil?
To me ooo, the money for this building can train and equip more than 15000 Akwaibomite .
We can't be hungry as a state but build a 21st story for a company that net worth can buy the state. Let's invest in youths, let's invest in women an elders.
I believe the state can do this ,yes we can do it.

You've started. What's the name of your state? Name it so I'll show my govenor how to spend Akwa Ibom money, if you can't name your state don't reply me.

Yobabad:
We know those that will not like this good news, Biafra is on the move

Quite unnecessary, don't derail this topic. Create another topic if you want to talk about biafra and not here.

Afid mbufo siba ke thread Ami nnam uyom....idung mbufo ikang ata?


Am wondering why some human beings can't just mind their business.

Must ethnic politics and ethnicity be spread at every given opportunity amongst Nigerians?

I think while the leaders are misleading is because the felowers are mis-following.

#ONLY GOD#.

I heard it cost 21B naira for that building. I guess each level is 1B to put together.

Wiseandtrue:
Wow!!! A state government achieving what the Federal government couldn't

Can't forget the Akwa Ibom Air

Buhari, where's the Nigerian Air

That's how it should actually be, Every state in the United States Fend for themselves, You can't expect the Federal Government to be doing everything all the time, That's the reason why every state gets allocation every month!!

But here in Nigeria, the state governor's Will embezzle the monthly allocation, then wait for FG to do Everything,

It shouldn't be like that!!