Later this year, the number-one Toyota dealer in Nigeria expects to open an 18-hole golf course and a practice center in Ilara-Mokin, in the state of Ondo.
His name is Michael Ade Ojo, and he’s the chairman of a Lagos-based conglomerate called Elizade Group of Companies. (Elizade is a word he created by combining parts of his wife’s name, Elizabeth, and his own, Ade.)
Ojo was born in Ilara-Mokin, and in recent years he’s built a school and opened a bank in his home town, which is 70 miles northwest of Lagos. He hired Ron Garl, a Lakeland, Florida-based architect, to design the to-be-named, championship-length course that will serve as the community’s centerpiece.
Ojo also plans to build a 200-room hotel, a water park, and, eventually, some condos.
Garl says, “He’s not doing it necessarily to make money. He’s doing it because he loves golf.”
Garl has one other golf course under construction in Nigeria, at Lekki Beach Golf Resort just outside Lagos. Membership in the Lekki Beach club, which could open in 2011, is reported to be $250,000.
Elizade.net
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