Trucks at the Konza Technology park where construction works have began.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 19 – The Konza Technology City Development Authority (KoTDA) is expected to kick off the construction of the first building at the Konza City grounds in March this year.
Speaking to property developers on Tuesday in Nairobi, CEO John Tanui said the building to be constructed at cost of Sh1.2billion will host the administrative headquarters for KoTDA.
On Monday, the authority signed a contract with the designer of the building which is expected to be completed before the end of 2017.
“It is going to be our headquarters and we are actually building the facility ourselves. We have already engaged the designer and things will kick off soon,” Tanui said, “We are ready.”
The building hopes to kick off the first phase of Konza City development which will occupy 24 parcels of land on 60 acres which are ready for development this year.
But even as Konza City kicks off, developers have called on the authority to assure them that there will enough end users after the completion of their constructions.
Kenya Association of Property Developers Chairman Hamish Govani says this will allow heavy investments which will in the end attract the right investors.
“Every developer needs some guarantee. We need to close this gap of developers and end users. We want to see that when done that we will have actual schools on board, hospitals and centres and I think the authority and the government can push for these kind of engagement,” Govani said.
The authority has in the meantime renewed its calls for investors to take up space in the technology part, which is anticipated to host the largest technology hub in East and Central Africa.
The eligible investors are required to demonstrate financial and technical capability and show experience in having undertaken similar projects in their fields of expertise.
The expression of interest will close on 30 of this January, after which the evaluation will be undertaken.
The Phase 1A of Konza City development, will see the 60 acres of land curved out of the larger 5,000 acres to kick off construction of the long awaited high-tech city.
The techno city hopes to attract and create over 20,000 jobs at the end of Phase 1 in 2020 in addition to over 200,000 residents in the city by 2030.
