The government of Tanzania has listed one more property in its real estate investment across the world after the country’s foreign affairs minister, January Makamba, launched the construction of the Twin Towers in Upper Hill, Nairobi on Tuesday.
The construction will be undertaken as a joint effort between Tanzania’s foreign affairs ministry and the country’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF), hoping to strengthen diplomatic presence in Nairobi.
The twin towers, rising 22 floors each, will host offices that are projected to earn the government of Tanzania its needed forex, totalling to TSh 36 billion every year, while also cutting the ministry’s costs in housing its staff.
The launch was attended by Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi, Cabinet Secretary for EAC Peninah Malonza, and a delegation from the Tanzanian embassy.
“The government of Tanzania owns about 101 buildings and plots around the world, most of them in prime areas in major capitals (in Lusaka alone, we own 11 buildings and plots),” said January Makamba.
According to Tanzania’s foreign ministry, the country spends about 29 billion shillings (about Ksh.1.4 billion) a year to rent embassy offices and embassy staff housing.
The country plans to replicate the construction of real estate investments in other cities including Kigali, Kinshasa, New York, London, and Lusaka.
“In the new strategy, which the government approved recently, we seek to use professional and world-class real estate entities to develop these assets to earn income for the government and uplift the quality of our embassies and embassy staff housing,” Makamba said.
The foreign affairs ministry has set aside TSh 127 billion to invest in Kenya, according to the ministry’s budget announcement last week. Most of these projects will be undertaken in partnership with private sectors within the countries of investment.
(Ksh.1 = 20.23 Tanzania shillings)
