GAMUCHIRAI TSOKOTA
Zimbabwe’s largest exhibition company Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) is planning to construct a convention centre and hotel to beat accommodation shortages experienced in the previous editions, the company’s chairwoman Ruth Ncube has revealed.
The budget for the project was initially set between $300 and $400 million but, due to the economic challenges that the country is currently experiencing the budget might be affected.
“We have been talking about the hotel and convention centre for the past two years and we already have land which was part of the donation from the city council which brought the city council into ownership in terms of shareholding” Ncube said at the company’s breakfast meeting in Harare Tuesday.
The company will engage the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) and follow its processes in the project.
“Over the years we didn’t quite know whether we were a private or state owned. Because of the thin line that we have had, government only came in strong around ZITF and we re- looked at our business model and realised that we are a state owned enterprise,” Ncube said.
“It brought the whole aspect on compliance with the government and the issues of procurement and it slowed us down”.
Businessman Shingi Munyeza was not quite convinced with the pace at which the construction process of the hotel. He suggested that there should be a way to privatise the project in order to quicken the process.
“We are sitting on a gold mine in terms of economic activity, we are talking to Old Mutual here, about re-investment, but until you have sorted out all these things we are not going to attract some investors,” Munyeza said.
The company is refurbishing one of its halls at the conference centre which Ncube said would see the introduction of a state of the art conference room.
“Our aim was to mesmerise you this April but unfortunately the price hike caught up with us and we could not attain some of the stuff that we were supposed to get, but we still believe that we will give you a good hall in 2019 but in 2020 you will see a much bigger and better conference centre,” she said.
