The project is a joint venture between Good Earth Power, Urban Green Energy and the county, and will be rolled out in phases for a period of 30 years. The UK’s Good Earth Power is the major partner.

It turned out to be a proposed ultra-modern 1000-unit housing estate outside Abuja initiated by Good Earth Power Nigeria, a subsidiary of the multi-billion dollar-family conglomerate, Zawani Group, based in Muscat, Oman, in partnership with the Federal Mortgage Bank. A newspaper report, suggesting that the project was a direct foreign investment attracted into Nigeria by President Goodluck Jonathan’s economic diplomacy is quite misplaced.

Rather, the group had to fight its way into the country, scaling multiple human hurdles, I learnt. Good Earth Power International co-founded by a member of the Omani royal family, Prince Alawi Zawani, is one of the companies under the Zawani Group with operations in Asia, Europe, America and now Africa. The Omani billionaire, Zawani, led a consortium of experts from Asia, Europe and America to the Abuja event, perhaps, a measure of the importance of the Nigerian market to their entry into the African market.