The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)’s Southern Africa Regional Office and Trade Centre which is set to be built in Harare soon will boast of a number of facilities that include accommodation, conference and exhibition.
This was revealed by the Cairo-based pan-African bank in an expression of interest targeted at building contractors which was published in the local print media this week.
“The bank intends to construct its Southern Africa Regional Office and Trade Centre on a 12 000 square metre plot of land in the Newlands area in Harare, Zimbabwe,” said the bank in the statement.
The continental financial institution further disclosed that the building would cater for a number of uses in line with the bank’s mandate of financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade.
“The 20 000 square metre iconic mixed use business complex shall provide an integrated one-stop shop for trade facilitation and information services and trade finance and offer a range of facilities: corporate office space, conference and exhibition centre, innovation and incubation hub, knowledge centre, hotel, retail etc,” read part of the statement.
The bank, however, did not disclose the details of the hotel, conference and exhibition centre in terms of seating capacity and number of beds.
Afreximbank’s decision to build the trade centre is a culmination of the bank’s 2017 decision to transform its buildings into iconic business complexes with integrated one-stop trade services shop. The bank describes such buildings as mini-business parks for African trade. The financial institution selected Harare in Zimbabwe and Abuja in Nigeria to be the first beneficiaries of the programme.
The land on which the building is set to be constructed was donated to the bank by the government of Zimbabwe in 2017.
