Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has applauded the management team of Capital City Development Ltd (CCDL), a leading and award-winning real estate company with headquarters in Port Harcourt, for their interest in investing in the state’s real estate sector, noting that now is the right time to invest in Abia.

Otti, while welcoming the team from CCDL led by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), Arc. Uche Arunsi Kalu, said his government is keen on opening up the state for business.

He directed further engagement with the government’s team and commended the firm for choosing to invest in Abia State.

The governor urged the firm to identify land they may want to develop, while the government would issue them a Certificate of Occupancy to proceed with their business.

He advocated for a structured payment system for people such as civil servants and low-income earners who may not have the means to pay all at once.

Otti acknowledged that everything about the public sector ultimately impacts the private sector, explaining that part of what his government is doing is to open up the state and create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

According to him, people often misunderstand the concept of location.

“It is a spot and a place, but it is more than that. It is the environment; it is the infrastructure; it is the access, and it is that environment defined by human beings. If you have a beautiful location and you don’t have people who would live in and afford that location, then it is not the right location,” he said.

The governor said his administration has focused on creating an enabling environment over the last 23 months, acknowledging that while appreciable progress has been made, further improvements are still required.

“We believe that this is the right time to begin to think of real estate investments. Before now, people had approached us from South Africa and other parts of the world. We have not been too responsive,” the governor stated.

Earlier in his speech, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of CCDL, Uche Kalu, who hails from Abia State, thanked Otti for his transformational leadership in the state.

He commended the government’s effort in removing the barriers that had previously prevented them from investing in Abia, despite their success in neighboring Rivers State, where the company is headquartered.

According to him, CCDL is a wholly indigenous real estate development company registered in Nigeria, with complementary competencies in project design, project management, and construction. Their shared vision focuses on providing a good living experience across all tiers of their addressable market.

The Abia-born real estate mogul, with presence in 14 states of the federation, said Abia remains a state they want to explore.

“We wanted to scale up our business, having consistently maintained a turnover running into tens of billions for some years. Having considered many locations for the scale-up, we asked ourselves, why not Abia, looking at what the governor is doing? When we looked at everything going on in Abia State, I asked myself, why not Abia?” Kalu said.

In her vote of thanks, the company’s Executive Director, Mrs. Nkwawi Kalu, commended Governor Otti for changing the story of Abia, noting that as a firm, they strive to provide ethical and creative solutions to address housing challenges for individual, corporate, and governmental needs.

She also commended the wife of the governor, Mrs. Priscilla Otti, for her humanitarian work and empowerment programmes in the state, which they have been following.

She went on to donate 100 quality Ankara wrappers to support the good works of the First Lady.