Ms Adewunmi Osagie is leading the special purpose vehicle company – Ocean City Lagos Limited, as the Managing Director in the development of Ocean City Lagos, named the Jewel of the Atlantic, a residential and commercial scheme on a man-made island along the Victoria Island coastline of the Atlantic Ocean. She speaks on her plan to transform the Lagos coastline and promoting such an ambitious project.

About Ocean City
Ocean City Lagos is promoted by Ocean City Lagos Limited (OCL). Ocean City Lagos will be the centre of the rapidly changing Lagos metropolis. It will transform the Lagos coastline into the world’s next 5G powered innovation and technology hub.

Ocean City Lagos will be home to a futuristic commercial hub, trendy and spectacular eco-friendly neighbourhoods. The new island city will also feature the best in medical innovation, arts and entertainment; and a wide range of modern facilities for sports enthusiasts.

At the heart of it, taking its pride of place at the centre of the city will be Nigeria’s next landmark, Africa’s tallest skyscraper – Eko Tower.

The city will boast of the finest in luxury residences and of state-of-the art commercial properties. Our 308-hectare city will be home to the finest gourmet restaurants, one-of-a-kind shopping experiences, world-class medical, cultural and sporting facilities held together by a high-tech transportation management system that will connect Ocean City to Lagos and the rest of the world by air, land and sea.

Ocean City will be located on a man-made island just off the Lagos coast on the Atlantic Ocean, beginning at the old Kuramo Beach and will be accessible by an extension of the Ahmadu Bello Way from the junction of Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island, as approved in May 2003, by the Federal Government of Nigeria through a Presidential approval.

The extension will be a seven-kilometre tolled coastal road that complements Federal Government’s masterplan; will support Lagos State’s Infrastructure Developments Goals; and the city’s transportation network from the marine terminal to the city airport, operating short and medium haul charter and commercial flights.

Who is Ms. Adewunmi Osagie?
Adewunmi Osagie started her professional career as a lawyer. She also has an MA in International Tourism Management and has previously pursued an MBA and a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA).

Osagie is a serial entrepreneur and has gained a solid track record over 35+ years as an executive managing family companies. In 1987, she founded Sea Global Energy Company (Nigeria) Limited and has launched several ventures, led successful exits and divestments in sectors including agriculture, real estate, transportation, technology, procurement and logistics, hospitality and most recently consumer goods.

In the mid-1990s, she was an early pioneer and investor in Nigeria’s telecoms and technology industries as a fixed wireless telephone and internet service provider. In the 1990s and 2000s, she expanded the procurement and logistics business working with large Nigerian public and non-public organisations to source highly technical and scare products from global markets.

She promoted real estate investments and the development of Nigerian tourism. Osagie sits on the advisory boards of private companies and is an active member of several national and international professional associations.

Ms Osagie considers herself a brilliant businesswoman with a head brimming with new concepts, which encapsulates the reason her company embarked on the Ocean City Lagos Project, in the pursuit of excellence in the real estate and tourism industries in Nigeria.

This is through their plan to provide developments, which will compare favourably with similar developments in other parts of the world. Her return to education in her forties, not only broadened her knowledge of the various aspects of the real estate and tourism industries but also gave her greater insight into the three phases of development: policy formulation (which sets guidelines for implementing objectives), planning and implementation strategies.

Similarly, her presentation skills and knowledge of computer software improved; she now has a wider understanding of reflection, with the ability to analyse more critically; and has a broader understanding of the objectives for tourism such as economic, environmental and socio-cultural.

She has necessarily examined these objectives at both macro and micro levels. Continuing education has also developed her personal skills and made her more confident by enabling her to understand issues better. This is clearly reflected in her new style of managing her organisation as she has a broader working knowledge of her industry of choice.

She has also learnt how to choose better from future global trends thus giving her the confidence to approach situations differently and takes pride in having stretched out herself with the personal satisfaction of having achieved to a great extent, what she set out to do.

Without a doubt, her activities in business are no longer simply informed by how lucrative it can or will be, but are defined by sustainability and best practice. She is also more true to herself and networks differently.

Finally, her absolute faith in God continues to engage her in the full practice of her Christian faith and helps to live out her life, underscored by strict Christian values and enabling her to enjoy a very full life.
What’s your typical day like, and how do you manage your team, the company’s methodology and way of direction?
I don’t have a typical working day in the sense that I am bound by certain work requirements – that is one of the great benefits of working remotely and working for myself.

We pride ourselves with employing strict business building methods to enable us achieve long-term company goals, such as innovation, goal setting, resilience, mindfulness, good time management and optimism. Courage and fearlessness underscore all we do are are. I believe firmly that behaviour, technique, attitude and a teachable spirit are the bedrock of success. No one is too old to learn and one must have the attitude of courage and fearlessness to achieve an overwhelming degree of success in any venture.

To succeed takes grit and the passions of persevere; is what keeps us on the sidelines and brings us back in the game of life. I must not let someone else’s beliefs paralyse me from achieving those things in my mind I just might be able to achieve, if I stay on course. If I am looking to thrive, to beat the odds and achieve extraordinary results in my life, I must not give up too soon and definitely must never give up on myself.

If one dares to dream big, one must conquer fear and be brave enough to fight. The 5Ps I learnt at University come to mind – Passion, Preparation, Persistence, Patience and Perseverance. These sum up the direction of Ocean City Lagos Ltd and our Amazon project.

Why has Ocean City taken so long in planning considering the allocation was made in 2003? Where is it now, how many phases are projected for completion?
This is a privately funded project and we have had to be careful to make the right decisions at the right time. When we received our Presidential Allocation dated May 27, 2003, several government sponsored developments (either through funding and direct policy making, which created an environment for government owned and well financed private owned companies to be successful), were just coming on stream, notably in the Middle and Far East.

Singapore, China, Songdo in South Korea and similar ambitiously designed in the Middle East developments had already begun to make modern developmental progress around the world and we needed to wait and see the success of such intentional governmental actions and how the world reacted. We saw cities rise out of oceans and deserts in sometimes most unexpected places. It was in many cases a situation of ‘build it and they would come’; and they came with their Foreign Direct investments (FDI), expertise, knowledge and know-how – and they will come to Ocean City Lagos also.

Now that these developments have proven to be hugely successful, with experiential lessons learnt, we are confidently proceeding with Ocean City Lagos. Now, more than ever is an exciting time for Nigeria and Africa because of technology, which will be the backbone of our city.

As you know, in 2021, Africa took centre stage in FinTech deals and Nigerian companies were involved in some of the most exciting of those deals. We are starting from that lead that Africa has taken.

OCL will be built on and driven by the latest technology in the market some of which we will create. We look forward to partnering with market leaders like Mafab, Main One and others; and the Nigerian government to deliver this new wave of technology to Nigeria and the rest of the world in our city.

You may wish to ask why me? Well, why not me? I am a Nigerian and it is my obligation as a citizen of Nigeria to better my country. I therefore congratulate and thank past and current Nigerian governments for recognising this project and giving us the instrument required to deploy it and continue to give us the enabling environment to do so.

OCL is planned as a purpose built city looking to deliver solutions and fill gaps in transportation, medicine and urban development. For example, our medical city’s mission will be to create armies of doctors to meet the needs of Nigeria and beyond, similar to what Cuba has achieved with the Reeve Brigade. In a country of over 200 million people, there is no reason why we cannot deliver doctors and medical personnel like Cuba.

With government’s blessing and the eagerness of our people, it stands to reason that if we can harness our human resources and deliver even .1 per cent of our population in the medical profession, we would have done well in our research university. There is no reason why we cannot be leaders in tropical health.

We’re creating an ecosystem to complement the Yabatech Village and all other innovation hubs across the country. Our Silicon Coast Nigeria in the Madaki District of Ocean City will be the epicentre of innovation, which companies like the new Pay Stacks, Gokada and such in Nigeria and Africa at large, will call home; as well as students in our world class University of Science and Technology.

The project is divided in five districts – Gladys, Madaki, Aremu, Adesola and Five Cowries, which may not necessarily be a reflection of the number of phases. Prior to now, as aforementioned, we have been busy planning and bringing thoughts together, which culminated in the official launch of the project on December 17, 2021, with huge fanfare.

Even we were and still are thankful for the positive way Ocean City Lagos has been received. So much energy, goodwill and good wishes have followed the hugely successful launch of our project, for which I thank God immensely.

The project is divided into four phases: Phase 1 (completion circa 2025): Reclamation of land for Phase 1 (Eko Tower and the Mixed-Use District, our Medical City and the Airport). The building of the seven kilometre Road with connections, tower, airport and investment in the Medical City will all be in this time.

Phase 2 (2025-2027) Gladys District – Reclaimed land for sale, completion of Aremu (Stadium and other Sporting Arenas), completion of Adesola – Airport and Cruise Terminal and Phase 3-4 (completion in 2028): Reclamation of Five Cowries (reclaimed land for sale).

How are we different?
We have not as a nation properly harnessed our natural resources from solar, wind and the ocean. It is therefore good to harness these resources. OCL will be totally sustainable. We will use the Atlantic Ocean to provide water, the sun for electricity, etc.

Our fellow brothers Rwanda, Morocco and Egypt have successfully harnessed these resources in different ways. We have been watching them over the years; and are learning from them and will go over and beyond them by deploying the latest technology in our city. There will be no generators in OCL. The ocean’s water will be filtered and used in the city in various ways .

There will be no electricity challenges as OCL, being 40 degrees North of the Equator, where sunshine is abundant, will fully harness this natural resource and convert to electricity. Lagos has over 3,000 hours of sunshine yearly. We also have heat. We will harness the sunshine for electricity and the heat for hot water.