Ben Murray-Bruce’s $100m Dream Project

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

When in 2010, Ben Murray-Bruce announced that his Silverbird Group wanted to build the tallest building in Africa, a 64-storey building called the Silverbird Stratosphere that will consist of a shopping mall, a five-star hotel, luxury apartments and much more in Banana Island, Lagos, it elicited exciting emotions.

This was so because of the expected illumination it would bring to the Lagos skyline aside its multi-purpose functionality. More than a decade after the inauguration, disappointingly, the well-publicised tallest building has gone comatose due to some undisclosed reasons.

Well, while the Lagos Stratosphere is still pending, Murray-Bruce seems ready this time around to move to a very sure next big thing: a World Class film studio complex in Lagos, Nigeria.

It was gathered that Murray-Bruce’s Silverbird Group has signed a partnership agreement with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for the construction of the complex to be known as the Ben Murray-Bruce Studios and Film Academy on a 32,725-square metre land area in Eko Atlantic City.

The project would transform the space into two purpose-built sound stages, a digital hub with music and broadcast studios, editing bays, screening rooms, studio backlot, production offices and a film academy designed to meet the aspirations of today and tomorrow’s content creators.

The deal worth $100 million —comprising both debt and equity investment— was signed by Helen Brume, director, project and asset-based finance, Afreximbank and Murray-Bruce on the side-lines of the recent Africa investment forum (AIF) in Côte d’Ivoire.

It seeks to accelerate Africa’s lucrative film and television industries, attract large-scale international productions to Africa, and establish a creativity cluster, which will draw in companies and talents working in similar and related sectors.