Nigeria's capital city of Abuja is about to get a new heart: a brand new World Trade Center complex.





The development is expected to open to the public early next year after the completion of the first phase of construction. It will join a network of 323 locations in 89 countries, started in 1970 with the inauguration of the first World Trade Center in New York City.

Funded by local and foreign financial institutions, as well as private investors, to the tune of 200 billion Nigerian Naira, or just over $1 billion, the WTC Abuja will be the largest mixed-use development in West Africa.

WTC Abuja has been under development since 2010, on a lot spanning over six million square feet in the Central Business Area of the capital.

The location offers easy access to the city center and the airport, with a dual-carriage highway surrounding the site and a new light rail system currently under construction.


For business tenants, though, the most important connections will be those with the global network of 750,000 entrepreneurs that make up the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA).

"One of the missions of WTC Abuja is to improve trade relations between Nigeria and the rest of the world," Vinay Mahtani, CEO of the site's developer, Lagos-based Churchgate Group, told CNN.

"For example, it will enable international businesses to make investments in our community. Ties will be forged between government agencies, non-governmental organizations and international corporations, and the additional business that is captured within the walls of the World Trade Center will provide tax revenues to government which can be used to improve the welfare of the people."


Abuja is Nigeria's capital city, a role for which it was purposely built starting in 1976, much in the same way as Brasilia for Brazil and Canberra for Australia.

Its physical location in the middle of the country is a good metaphor for its neutral role of unity.

It is now the fourth largest urban area in Nigeria, with impressive growth rates.

Abuja replaced Lagos as the capital on 12 December 1991, although the coastal city remains the largest in the whole of Africa, when considering its massive metropolitan population of 21 million.

After a recent revision in the way it measures its GDP, Nigeria now boasts Africa's biggest economy, having surpassed South Africa with a 2014 estimate of $568 billion.

With strong growth rates in recent years, Nigerian economy is flourishing, even though its reliance on oil exports -- the country is Africa's largest producer and the sixth in the world -- makes it susceptible to the volatile nature of that market.


World Trade Center Association Timeline
1939: The World's Fair in Queens, NY, names its grounds "World Trade Center"
1961: The NY Port Authority approves the WTC project
1969: the non-profit, non-political organization is founded in New York
1970: The first 15 members meet in Tokyo
1973: The WTCA moves to the 77th floor of the WTC in New York
2015: the network reaches 323 members in 89 countries and connects 750,000 companies and entrepreneurs

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/07/africa/world-trade-center-abuja-nigeria/index.html

HMMMM

I guess with this regime the north haves it all.

Thats amazing.

DaBullIT:



Abuja is in the middle belt, not north even if it's dominated mostly by northerners , it is the capital and it's befitting for that building to be there


Stop whinning about everything

lols, all off a sudden abuja is now middle belt it is no longer in the north,, u minions are comics.

Very beautiful place I must say. Phase one is good as done already.

Demburrows:
lols, all off a sudden abuja is now middle belt it is no longer in the north,, u minions are comics.

Abuja (/əˈbuːdʒə/)[3] is the capital city of Nigeria. It is located in the centre of Nigeria, within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Abuja is a planned city,[4] and was built mainly in the 1980s. It officially became Nigeria's capital on 12 December 1991, replacing Lagos, though the latter remains the country's most populous city. At the 2006 census, the city of Abuja had a population of 776,298,[1] making it one of the ten most

Wikipedia and CIA Factbook

Get some education

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C28xMDZ-jPg

[size=15pt]World Trade Center Abuja - October 2015 update[/size]

First two towers near completion, work still in progress.

Well, let's just hope it won't become another target for “Allahu Akubarrrr - Boom!”