Nigeria’s enormous housing backlog, abundance of land and the promise of government facilitation present a golden opportunity for the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) and My Home in Africa (MHiA) to join forces in a strategic partnership capable of building entire cities.

Combining the best features of Nigerian architectural preferences with relevant Western design and technology favoured by Diaspora members, MHiA would create cities with a distinct environment hitherto unavailable either in Africa or in the West.

A typical Diaspora City will be a state of the art, self-sufficient residential development offering a superb lifestyle to its residents unprecedented in Nigeria. The initial approach is to create a small city of 10 000 housing units with the potential to grow to 100 000 or more units as residents are attracted by the superior lifestyle on offer.

As the name suggests the city will utilise the latest state of the art design and technology across the board to ensure that residing in its environs is not only safe, enjoyable and stimulating but stress-free and eminently affordable.

To make that possible the partnership will carefully select the location and adopt an all inclusive holistic approach to the planning and implementation while remaining strongly focused on the social as well as physical needs of the residents. The town-planning, layout and landscaping will be generously proportioned and organically configured to complement the natural topography of the land.

The all-inclusive planning approach will not only provide first-rate dependable physical infrastructure such as security, sealed roads, pedestrian paths, reticulated water, sewerage, electricity and free internet connectivity but will ensure that overall planning accords with finest international standards governing social infrastructure. This will include the provision of an urban/commercial centre that will attract a world class shopping mall operator and retailers, professional and commercial offices, trade zones and other activities. Additionally generous provision will be made for a hospital/health centre, worship areas, schools and educational facilities, institutional zones as well as sporting and recreational activities.

The Diaspora Smart City will be powered by renewable self-sufficient energy systems utilising a hybrid combination of solar, wind and methane gas produced by the sewage treatment plant. Excess electricity will be sold to the national grid authority. Potable water will be treated at a dedicated plant while grey water will be recovered and used for toilet flushing and irrigation. Street lighting will be solar powered. The utilities would be owned and operated by the partnership as an independent business entity.

All household appliances, water heaters and light fittings will be selected for their efficiency and minimal energy consumption. While attracting an increasing numbers of returning Diaspora members, the development will be equally attractive to locals offering a realistic blend of house sizes, styles and affordability levels that will ensure a harmonious socio-economic balance of residents.

The approach will create a popular much sought after life style environment that will attract responsible and financially secure residents that will ensure the practical and commercial success of the venture and provide superior returns to investors at acceptable risk levels.

The location would take into account the ambient physical and topographic factors as well the availability of connecting roads, other basic infrastructure and relevant features.To enable a development of the proposed quality and style would require 400 to 550 hectares of serviceable land for the initial 10 000 houses. Approximately 4000 hectares would additionally be needed to allow progressive expansion to a 100 000 house city.

People in Nigeria have been building houses for millennia with various regions developing their own styles and methods to suit local conditions, materials and needs. As well as being practical these traditional designs also met cultural needs and preferences.

The advent of European settlers and the increasing exposure of Nigerians to international travel led to the adoption all over Nigeria. and often the preference for European and North American designs, materials and construction methods.

While using more durable materials and having better internal conveniences, as well prestige value, most of these designs were not practical for local conditions and were seldom cost effective or affordable.Therefore taking African conditions and a combination of African and Western factors into account, our Architects and Engineers worked together to achieve an ideal combination of both to create affordable, attractive and practical house designs.

Coupled with efficient energy And water saving appliances and low energy light fittings, Green Architecture will underline the house design - with natural lighting, ventilation and passive heating enhancing living conditions while saving energy

Below are some examples of facilities and buildings that can be included in the development for which town planning provision will be made.