Eko Atlantic City · RC 01689 · Victoria Island, Lagos
Makaya Consult FZE is an independent, fee-based development financial advisor operating from Azuri Towers — the building we delivered — at the heart of Eko Atlantic City. We work for you, not the transaction.
5 Million m² Dedication Ceremony · Eko Atlantic City · February 2013
“L’impossible
n’existe pas.”
At Makaya Consult we treat every client's project as our own. We bring the same financial discipline, the same actuarial rigour, and the same delivery commitment to your mandate that we brought to Azuri Towers.
We walk with you from the first number to the last handover. Not as a service provider. As the person with the most to lose if the analysis is wrong.
About Makaya Consult
Makaya Consult FZE is a fee-based development financial advisory practice incorporated within the Eko Atlantic Free Trade Zone. We advise landowners, developers, and institutional investors on every financial and strategic dimension of building in EAC.
We work exclusively on the owner's side. Our mandate is to ask the questions the project team will not ask — to model the true cost of capital, challenge the assumptions, and protect the investment from errors made before the first brick is laid.
The firm was founded by Olawale Opayinka — trained as an actuary, engaged inside Eko Atlantic since 2011, and the former MD and CEO of Eko Development Company (FZE & Ltd), where he led the delivery of Azuri Towers through COVID-19 and delivered on time and on budget.
“The developer who understood what Eko Atlantic was becoming in 2009 is now available to guide your project.”
Olawale Opayinka
Founder & Managing Director
What We Do
From land acquisition through to project handover, Makaya Consult guides clients across every phase of development in EAC. We take a limited number of mandates each year — engagements built on depth, not volume.
01
Site identification, title verification, pricing strategy, and transaction management for land in Eko Atlantic City and Victoria Island. Every acquisition starts with the right numbers, not the available plot.
Full service →02
Independent feasibility and development options analysis for landowners. Residential towers, mixed-use, commercial — we identify the highest-value use for each site before a brief is written or an architect is appointed.
Full service →03
True cost modelling, capital stack optimisation, construction finance, and off-plan sales structuring. We model what the project will actually cost — including the costs most financial advisors leave out.
Full service →04
End-to-end programme leadership: SPV setup, consultant coordination, EAC regulatory approvals, value engineering, and construction oversight. The same approach that delivered Azuri Towers on schedule through a pandemic.
Full service →05
Positioning EAC developments to institutional investors, diaspora buyers, and corporate occupiers. Off-plan sales support, investor presentations, and advocacy to the audiences who matter.
Full service →06
Access to the networks that move development forward in EAC — capital markets, energy, banking, architecture, and government. Facilitated through a board whose collective experience spans three decades of Nigerian institutional life.
Full service →Track Record
The proof of concept is not a case study. It is a 146-metre residential tower standing in the Marina District, commissioned on schedule in December 2021, having navigated a global pandemic and supply chain disruption without halting construction.
Azuri Towers · Marina District · EAC
2009
Olawale Opayinka organises the only Africa visit in the career of Gerald D. Hines — the Houston developer who built Uptown Houston and delivered major projects in 47 countries. Bismarck Rewane, Nigeria's pre-eminent independent economist, is invited to brief Hines on Nigeria's economic landscape and development trajectory. The delegation holds extended meetings with senior political leadership, including the man who is now the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The conclusion: EAC would become a city — the conviction that would shape everything that followed.
2011
Olawale is engaged by South Energyx Nigeria Limited for financial modelling and value engineering on the Eko Atlantic development — the beginning of fifteen years of embedded work inside the city.
2013
Olawale delivers the ceremony marking the reclamation of five million square metres of Eko Atlantic City — attended by the President of Nigeria, the 42nd President of the United States, the Governor of Lagos State, and senior international dignitaries. Organising a ceremony of that scale, with presidential protocol, on reclaimed ocean land, required exactly the embedded project capability that defines Makaya Consult today.
2019
Takes the helm of Azuri Towers at a critical point — with construction committed and COVID-19 on the horizon. The task: keep a major mixed-use development project on schedule through a global supply chain shock, with a team on reclaimed ocean land and no margin for delay.
2020–21
Construction continues through the pandemic without halting. Supply chain disruptions are managed. The financial model holds. The programme delivers.
Dec 2021
Nigeria's tallest residential tower completes. Three towers: Azuri One (33 floors, 146 metres), Azuri Two (29 floors, luxury residential), Azuri Offices (32 floors, Grade-A commercial). 27,000 m² of office space. Gensler-designed. ITB Nigeria-constructed. On time.
2024
The advisory firm opens at P2 Retail, Azuri Towers — the building Olawale delivered — incorporated in the Eko Atlantic Free Trade Zone. The embedded knowledge and delivery discipline of more than fifteen years in EAC, now available to landowners and developers independently.
146m
Nigeria's tallest residential tower
3
Towers — residential & Grade-A office
27K m²
Grade-A office space delivered
Dec '21
Commissioned on schedule — through COVID-19
15+ yrs
Embedded in EAC since its first phase
Light-Up Ceremony — December 2021
The Opportunity
A purpose-built financial and residential city rising from reclaimed ocean land off Victoria Island, Lagos. Protected by the Great Wall of Lagos. Operating under a Free Trade Zone framework that offers structural advantages unavailable anywhere else in Nigeria.
Master-planned area
10M m²
Across all districts — one of the largest urban developments in Africa
Target population at build-out
250k
Residents plus 150,000 daily commuters at full city capacity
Land reclaimed to date
6.5 km²
2028 target for full reclamation completion across all phases
100% foreign ownership. Zero withholding tax on dividends. Free profit repatriation. Duty-free imports. Structural incentives that change the economics of every capital structure decision in EAC.
All land sold directly by South Energyx Nigeria Limited with full title documentation. Development control sits with the EAC Development Authority — a separate regime from Lagos State. Understanding this distinction is not optional before any application.
Ten distinct districts with varying plot ratios, height limits, and frontage requirements. Misreading the planning envelope is the most common — and most expensive — error developers make in EAC. More than fifteen years of navigating it is not a marketing claim. It is the service.
24/7 independent power. Fibre-optic connectivity. Potable water. Stormwater drainage. The infrastructure is operational across phases 1 and 2. A development-ready platform that does not exist elsewhere in Lagos at this quality.
Marine logistics, specialist foundation engineering, and the regulatory overlay add real cost over mainland Lagos. This premium is quantifiable and must be modelled honestly. The compensating factor is a pricing tier and an asset class that justifies it — when the product is right.
Nigerian lenders are increasingly familiar with EAC assets as security. Off-plan residential sales — demonstrated by the Azuri Towers model — reduce equity drawdown and satisfy pre-sale thresholds ahead of construction finance drawdown. The model is proven. It requires the right structure.
Flood-free infrastructure. Free Trade Zone incentives. International investment from the Middle East, Europe, and the African diaspora. A regulatory framework that, once understood, offers clarity that the rest of Lagos cannot match.
Full market analysis →“We have about 700 square kilometres of potential development… the promises of that whole axis give us the potential to have an enterprise value for developments along that corridor from about $1.4 trillion at the low end to $14 trillion.”— Olawale Opayinka · DAWN Commission / BRACE Commission Forum · March 2026See how the figure is derived →
Eko Atlantic City is developed by South Energyx Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group, in strategic partnership with the Lagos State Government. Makaya Consult FZE is an independent advisory firm — not affiliated with South Energyx or the Chagoury Group.
The Heritage of the Firm
1970
Gerald D. Hines builds on Post Oak Boulevard — an underpriced corridor that the market has overlooked. The principle he establishes: build for what the city is becoming, not what it is today.
2009
Olawale Opayinka organises a two-day Lagos engagement for Gerald D. Hines, with Bismarck Rewane — Nigeria's pre-eminent independent economist — invited specifically to brief Hines on Nigeria's economic landscape and development trajectory. The delegation conducts structured site evaluations and holds extended meetings with senior political leadership, including the man who is now the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The conclusion: EAC represents the same opportunity that Post Oak Boulevard represented for Houston in 1970.
2013
The ceremony marking the reclamation of five million square metres of EAC — one of the defining moments in the city's history — is delivered by Olawale. In attendance: the President of Nigeria, the 42nd President of the United States, and the Governor of Lagos State.
2017–2021
The project that validated the 2009 belief. Commissioned December 2021. Nigeria's tallest residential tower, delivered on schedule through a pandemic.
2024
The advisory firm that carries the Hines heritage forward. The developer who understood EAC's future in 2009 now advises yours.
“Build the thing that reveals what the city is becoming — not what it is today.”— Gerald D. Hines (1925–2020) · Lagos, Nigeria · February 2009
Our Office
Makaya Consult FZE operates from P2 Retail, Azuri Towers — the building we delivered — at the epicentre of EAC's Marina District. A glass-fronted three-floor office at the most visible address in the city.
Leadership
Capital markets. Law. Architecture. Media. Together, a board that brings thirty-plus years of Nigerian institutional experience to every mandate Makaya Consult accepts.
Non-Executive Directors
Haruna Jalo-Waziri
Chairman
Former MD/CEO of the Central Securities Clearing System for eight years and Executive Director of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Three decades of capital markets leadership and institutional governance.
LinkedIn
Seye Kosoko
Vice Chairman
Legal practitioner and corporate leader with thirty years across banking, finance, telecoms, and law. Formerly Company Secretary of FBN Holdings and Head of Legal at Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria. Called to the Nigerian Bar in 1985.
Prof. Erekpitan Ola-Adisa
Board Member
Professor of Architecture with deep expertise in sustainable design, architectural practice, and development viability. ARCON-registered with NIA fellowship. Brings critical design and sustainability thinking to every EAC project the firm advises on.
Executive Directors
Founder & MD / Chief Executive Officer
Trained actuary. More than fifteen years embedded in EAC. Former CEO of Eko Development Company FZE & Ltd (2019–2023) — delivered Azuri Towers on time through COVID-19. The analytical and operational foundation of Makaya Consult.
LinkedIn Full profile →
Ariyo Opayinka
Executive Director — Media & Communications
Leads media strategy, communications, and brand positioning for Makaya Consult FZE. Drives visibility across EAC and the broader Nigerian and international real estate market.
Insights
Analysis and practical knowledge from the only advisory firm whose principal built Nigeria's tallest residential tower in EAC from the ground up.
Development Advisory
Most development failures in Eko Atlantic City are predictable. They share a common origin: questions that were not asked early enough.
Read article →Free Trade Zone
The FTZ designation changes the calculus on equity structure, profit repatriation, and withholding tax in ways that most developers are not yet accounting for.
Read article →Case Study
Nigeria's tallest residential tower was delivered on schedule through a global pandemic. These are the decisions that made it possible.
Read article →Project
146 metres. Delivered through COVID-19. How it was planned, financed, and commissioned. By the MD/CEO who built it.
Read more →Investment Guide
Land acquisition, zoning, pricing, and investment strategy in EAC — by the former MD/CEO of Eko Development Company.
Read guide →Analysis
The N15.6 trillion coastal highway will reshape land values across the south-west corridor. Here is what it means for EAC timing and investment strategy.
Read analysis →Careers
Makaya Consult FZE is a small, expert firm at the frontier of Africa's most ambitious urban development. We recruit people who share the belief that the impossible does not exist.
View all vacancies →Operations · MC-OPS-001
Full-time · Mid–Senior · Immediate Start
View & Apply →Speculative Applications
We grow based on talent. Send a speculative application at any time.
Email us →Get In Touch
Every engagement begins with a direct conversation. If you own land in Eko Atlantic, have a development concept, or are seeking investment exposure in EAC, we respond within 48 hours.
We take a limited number of mandates each year. We do not work on commission, and we do not represent vendors. Our only obligation is to you.
