The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HDV Nigeria Limited, owners of Ibis Lagos Ikeja and Ibis Lagos Lekki, Olufemi Okenla, has called for improved development financing for businesses, particularly in the construction and hospitality sectors.
Okenla made the call in Lagos on Friday during the unveiling of the 120-room Ibis Lagos Lekki, urging the government and banking sector to develop a project financing model that would support long-term investments.
He said the current financing structure placed an excessive burden on private investors because banks often required them to begin repaying loans before their projects generated revenue.
Okenla said, “There is an issue that we private investors need to sit with the banking sector to form a kind of a very viable project financing model. The current model in the country is not effective. It’s like a model of the winner takes it all.”
He argued that the financing system must reflect the country’s developmental objectives, noting that development banks in other economies offered discounted funding and repayment periods linked to the cash flow of projects.
He said, “The issue of the moratorium period is that if you have a project financing, you should not start paying back anything until the project has reached cash flow. But that is not what is happening in our country.”
Okenla noted that investors often incur substantial financing costs even before opening their projects. “If I tell you the amount we have paid in project financing, before even opening, it runs to billions. It’s not millions. It runs to billions that we pay to banks for the little money we took from them. So to me, that is not a strategy to develop, to build our country,” he said.
Okenla said HDV Nigeria Limited initially planned to establish 10 mid-scale hotels within 15 years after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Accor in 2008. However, funding and other challenges had slowed the expansion.
He said, “It was supposed to be 10 hotels in 15 years, but we’ve only been able to do two in 13 years. So we missed the target.”
He added that the company still aimed to expand its hotel portfolio, stressing that the two Ibis facilities in Lagos had provided 285 internationally branded hotel rooms.
Okenla said the company ventured into the sector because Nigeria lacked sufficient internationally branded hotel rooms capable of accommodating major conferences and international events.
According to the hotel, the new Lekki location boasts facilities, including 120 rooms, soundproof rooms, combined 1,000-guest-capacity meeting, conference and exhibition halls and meeting rooms on a dedicated floor, a gym and an open terrace swimming pool.
It also has a multi-storey car park, a large-capacity open terrace lounge, a sustainable hotel development with internationally certified fire safety and acoustic insulation standards, a high-speed centralised Wi-Fi network and integrated IPTV systems.
The General Manager of Ibis Lagos Lekki, Stefano Ciocca, said the new hotel would serve as a hub for hospitality, business and social interactions in the Lekki community.
He said, “Opening a hotel is never simply about opening a building. It is about opening a door. A door to new experiences, new relationships, new opportunities, and, in our case, a new place for people to feel welcome in one of the most energetic and exciting parts of Lagos.”
Ciocca said the hotel would focus on providing accessible and human-centred hospitality while integrating into the rapidly developing Lekki community.
The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Abimbola Salu-Hundeyin, described the investment as a vote of confidence in Lagos and its economic prospects.
Salu-Hundeyin said, “Beyond the elegance of this building, the rooms and the welcome guests and the services that will be provided here today represent something much bigger. It is a vote of confidence in Lagos. It is a vote of confidence in our citizens. And most importantly, a vote of confidence in Nigerians, in our people, and in the future and the shared prosperity we are building together.”
She said hospitality had become an important component of Lagos’ economic ecosystem because it supported investment, employment, tourism, conferences, entertainment and creative industries.
She added that the Lekki corridor had become one of the fastest-growing parts of Lagos, with infrastructure, commerce, technology and lifestyle developments converging in the area.
“Alongside this growth, hospitality becomes essential infrastructure. That is where this hotel becomes more than a hotel. It becomes part of the infrastructure of growth. It is what creates jobs, supports local businesses, hosts visitors and strengthens the wider ecosystem that keeps Lagos moving forward,” the governor’s representative said.
The founder’s wife, Modupe Okenla, said the new facility would provide additional employment opportunities and support the development of careers in the hospitality industry.
She said, “We pray that it will actually also bring in a lot of employment because we haven’t reached the peak in employing people. They’re still employing more people, and we are hoping that people that work here will gain more experience in their hospitality careers.”
The new Ibis Lagos Lekki brings the Accor-branded hotel’s presence in Lagos to two locations, following the operation of its 165-room facility on Allen Avenue, Ikeja, since 2013.
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