Valor City: Ogbomoso’s new city initiative planned for 50, 000 residents- all you need to know
Femi OGUNLANA
A new settlement that will boast all the trappings of a modern city is being built in the outskirts of Ogbomoso, Oyo state, envisioned to be ready in ten to fifteen years.
The city to be called ‘Valor City,’ is a bold initiative of a private firm – Hastom Properties Limited – which also owns Hastom Foods and Farms. At completion, it is expected to be home to some 50, 000 (fifty thousand) inhabitants.
Ostensibly, Valor City derived its name etymologically from Ogbomoso’s cognomen – Land of the Valiant – and is presently sitting on a 2, 500 acres of land (1000 ha), with plan to expand to 5000 acres in the short run.
It is a beautiful conception of the chairman and CEO of Hastom Group, Mr. Thomas Olusola Debo, who during an interview with The Insight (ogbomosoinsightonline.com) in September 2021, prided Hastom Properties Ltd as the largest farmland seller in Nigeria with sales of over 2000 acres of land yearly. .
The city is fantasized to be an haven of opportunities patterned after the city of Dubai, capital of United Arab Emirates, and other thriving cities.
According to the “dreamer,” Mr. Debo, he comes about the concept after much dream, conceptualization and thinking.
He is appalled by extensive waste of talents, unrealized potentials and foisting of an environment that does not help to discover and nurture the vast potentials embedded in individuals and the community or nation as a whole. He visualizes a thriving city provided with adequate infrastructure, facilities and an enabling environment generally, that will make people tap effortlessly into opportunities that abound for their development as well as offering a living akin to what is obtainable abroad.
Advertisement
It is a big project, he admits, but he says confidently he is undaunted, that he believes nothing is impossible or unattainable. “Whatever the mind conceives and believes can be achieved,” he quotes.
Geographically, Valor City, sharing boundaries with the 250-acre land annex of the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary (NBTS), Ogbomoso, is 200m from Tewure off Igbeti road, in Oriire local government area, 16km from Ogbomoso (Federal Government College Interchange), 35km from Ilorin, 40km from Igbeti and 15km from Old Oyo National Park. So, it’s strategicaly located, in terms of easy accessibility and harnessing of the economic and tourism advantages of these towns – fresh and cheap food items from the nearby local markets, Igbeti marble resources and hilly landscape, Ilorin Airport, range of flora and fauna abounding in the Old Oyo National Park, among others.
Unveiling the new city Wednesday, ‘Debo Hastom’ as he is fondly called, took time to explain the concept to journalists.
“Valor City is not just an estate,” he begins. “Valor City is the reason l believe l am born. I am born to do this. What do l mean? I believe you can be anything you wish to be. But we need some enablement, we need the environment to be enabling to be anything we want to be. And that is the main thing that gave birth to the idea of the Valor City. It is not another estate, it is beyond that.”
Advertisement
He adds, “So, what is Valor City? We want to equip people with opportunities they can explore to develop. I believe if everybody is empowered, they are going to develop. To attain development, l have seen it is beyond schooling. So, what other things can we do? If some things are available they will help people be what they want to be. That is what Valor City is all about. It is about human development. Holistic human development! Valor City is a place where when you come to, you leverage on the pillars the city is built on. It is going to change people’s lives.”
The self-made entrepreneur, who was once a dry cleaner (without use of washing machine), a butcher apprentice and a blacksmith apprentice at different times, now reels out the six pillars the new settlement will rest on and which are envisaged will be the drivers for the realization of the dreamed city. These are re-imagined education, tourism and entertainment, sports, healthcare, tech and eco-friendly environment.
He explains in details, “We have conceptualized what we call re-imagined education. The education we receive in schools in Nigeria has not really developed us; we don’t impart skills that can help us solve various problems. That is the core of our re-imagined education. Education like never before – vocational studies, practical aspects, hotel management, carpentry etc. It will draw a lot of people from different parts of Nigeria and other African countries to come and learn here. The impact is going to change this terrain. More money is going to be pumped into Ogbomoso. Things will function here at the Valor City.
“Sport is another major pillar the Valor City is going to be built on. For me, it is not everyone that can do well in the classroom. Everyone has got some gifts and talents but if the enabling environment is not there you won’t be able to maximize that talent. So, we will provide sports infrastructure such as good football pitches, lawn tennis court, basketball court etc. We will have a lot of facilities for sports development so we can have more Lionel Messis, Serena Williams, Victor Osimhens and so on. We will develop sports academies – football, basketball, athletics, martial arts like boxing, karate where these talents can be nurtured to become global stars. And we are going to be having a lot of competitions, tournaments so that the talents being nurtured can have opportunities to showcase their talents.
“Another pillar of Valor City is tourism. There is no major economy in the world that is not built on tourism. If you look at USA, if you look at Dubai, in fact, the money they make from tourism is bigger than from crude oil. So, it is a sector that has a lot of potentials. And Ogbomoso, we are strategically positioned. Geographically where we are standing is just 35 kilometres to Ilorin Airport Ilorin, (capital of Kwara state), so, people can just land at Ilorin International Airport and drive here to enjoy various tourism activities. Water parks, amusement parks, best hotels, film village, well-laid out environment, very nice things. The idea is to bring people to this place to relax, to work, have conferences, retreats, entertainment etc.
“Another one is healthcare. We are going to have a lot of specialist hospitals – for cancer, eye treatments, different kinds of special medical services. They will have their own district – we call it the healthcare district. We will ensure Valor City is going to be your choice place for your health challenges from everywhere.
“Another thing is tech. Tech is about the biggest thing in the world now. All top companies in the world now are tech companies, you talk of Tesla, Facebook, Amazon and all of them using tech to drive change and economic activities across the world. But to be involved in tech, you have to be trained, to be exposed to it – robotics, AI, cyber security etc. These are the things Valor City is going to create ecosystem for. It is going to be a hub of tech support in Nigeria. We have enough space for big companies to put up their branches.
“Valor City is not going to be the usual environment. It is going to be eco-friendly. In terms of architectural design we are going to highly regulate the residential areas, the minimum size you can put up in your plot, the maximum size. A lot of people have traveled out of the country, we want to provide a place not far from the reality of where they are coming from. They want a place there is sanity. That’s what Valor City is bringing to life.
“I see this place as a new Ogbomoso, where our people, people who want to be among the elite can live.”
How Valor City will work out
Hastom Properties Ltd has already acquired 2500 acres of land with eye on more. The parcel will be carved into districts -healthcare district, education district, tech district, sport district and so on. There will be district for skyscrapers, bungalows, each zone will have its prototype.
The company will provide facilities such as roads, central water system, functional electricity, security and so on. There will be private sector involvement, various partners, different layers of investments. We will partner with government at some levels like in rebuilding of access roads from the next village. Then, individuals will have opportunity to buy land and develop or resell (but you buy land and develop, no room for abandonment). Individuals and corporate bodies will build hospitals, schools, sport centres, sports academies in partnership or privately. Valor City is going to be a new city embedded not only with all parameters of a modern thriving city but works like one also.
“The whole concept has been in me for about twenty years,” the visioner further discloses while answering reporters’ questions.
“I started having the dream when l started my journey into entrepreneurship. I actually got inspired by a book where it is stated that you can actually build a city where dreams can be nurtured. As God would arrange it l found myself in real estate. The day l first came here and I saw the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, NBTS, land (250 acres) bordering the land and knowing what NBTS represents l decided to buy the land. In 2019, l visited Dubai for the first time, l was inspired by what l saw – l saw green in the desert, I saw millions of people trooping in and milling around and l told myself l am going to build a city, not a normal real estate.”
On time frame for the new city to kick to life, he says, “When we started in 2021, we gave ourselves 10-15 years, two years are gone already, and so, we have 13 years for it to be fully functional. It is a massive project, and the road, we have level one, level two which we are opening up, it is 27 kilometres. So, if we are looking at something like that it is going to take time to build. We have done a lot of planning but we are still planning, remodelling our plans, still chipping in things here and there. But we are starting to believe things can be built faster than we envisaged. By next year, the way we look at it we should have first set of residential houses in this place. We have opened about 7 kilometres road already within the city.”
He reiterates, there would be strict regulation on and adherence to procedure. “When you come with your plan, it is going to be reviewed, subject to approval of the city planning department, if they approve of your plan, it is good to go.”
He also informs the new city will take advantage of the 33/11kv power substation at Tewure. “But we know how unstable and unreliable the national grid is, so, we have plan for our own renewable power generation, you know it is a smart city.”
Advertisement
He emphasizes, exuding the confidence of a lion stalking a prey, “Valor City is going to be a new place to live, to run businesses, with standard functional schools, with people from outside bringing their children; we want to provide enabling environment, excellent infrastructure like Dubai. There will be central water system, this is not a place everybody will start building borehole. Corporate bodies, institutions, hospitals can have outlets here. We have started opening up the road, there are three levels, we started with levels one and two – 27kms. The access road into the city which is our trunk A road is opened, it is 30 metres wide, then, we will have others – 18 metres wide roads. We will start allocating land by second week in April.
“We are building race courses for bikers, golf courses for lovers of golf, and many other facilitiess. People see an undeveloped place but l see a built up place,” a passionate and enthusiastic Debo Hastom concludes.
See more – from the Valor City brochure
