IWG Signs Agreement with Bank on New Workspace

Emmanuel Olorunda-Otaru

To meet the rising demands of flexible workspaces in Lagos, the International Workspace Group (IWG) has partnered with the Alternative Bank, a subsidiary of Sterling Bank, with the opening of a new workspace, under the HQ Brand of IWG at the ALT Place, Lekki Lagos.

The HQ Workspace, which will be on the second and third floors of the building, is set to open in March next year in Lekki, Lagos.

The centre will be HQ and other brands.

During the signing agreement, it was revealed that this milestone marks a new chapter in providing premium flexible workspace solutions in the city, coming on the hills of the business posting its highest ever revenue, cash flow and earnings in its history, and achieving rapid network growth, which led it to signing other 465 new locations in the first half of this year alone.

The IWG believes that this high-quality office spaces in Lagos will allow the local people to experience living in a ’15-minute’ city, which will enable workers to work close to their residence, without commuting from far away.

According to the CEO/Founder of IWG Plc, Mark Dixon, “We are establishing a stronger and much needed footprint in Nigeria with these latest openings. As an important business hub, Lagos is a fantastic place for us to boost our expansion plans.

“The need for high quality flexible workspaces continues to soar as hybrid working becomes the new normal. We are very pleased to work in partnership with Sterling Bank to develop the brand under a management agreement that will add cutting-edge workspaces to the building.

“Oour openings in Lagos come at a time when more and more companies are discovering that flexible working boosts employee happiness and satisfaction, while helping the environment. Our workplace model is also proven to increase productivity and allows for a business to scale up or down at significantly reduced costs.”

On his part, the Country Director of IWG, Mr Ayo Akinmade, said: “The partnership wasn’t just about creating offices for people to use but in collaboration that we expect to endure across Nigeria over the next couple of decades. The vision is to create the space that will be used to be productive but beyond that to enable them to meet their banking needs as they want it and whenever they want it. This is a pilot that we expect to become a norm.”

Also at the occasion, the Sterling Bank MD/CEO, Abubakar Suleiman, said: “What we see here today is part of a holistic thinking for the Sterling Bank Group. The expression of this place is through our subsidiary, The Alternative Bank Limited. This is our interpretation of embedded banking in real life.  

“We think that you can do digital embedding correctly, you have to first embed in physical spaces and that means you have to first find the community or ecosystem where financing improves value for everyone. In the commitment of The Alternative Bank to creating wealth for everyone, we find spaces where because The Alternative Bank is present, value is enhanced.

“First and foremost, one of the challenges to creating workspaces is financing, it is difficult to find the right financing for spaces like this and scale. The Alternative Bank being a real sector-focused bank has the funding base to support the development of spaces like this.

“Secondly, where customers come for business reasons, they almost always need a banking service provider and there would be no need to depart from where they do business to meet those needs. We know that the presence of a bank in those spaces improves the opportunities for those who use the spaces and we are hoping that not only would we be inviting IWG to our space, they will also be inviting us to their space.”