A ZAMBIAN CORDINATED OVER $100BILLION INVESTMENT FOR EGYPT’S NEW CAPITAL CITY
ICYMI: Businessman Mudolo is to be honoured for Egypt’s New Administrative Capital city’s construction
The Egyptian Investment Corporation will this week honour Zambian-born South African investor and businessman Willah Mudolo at the opening of the second phase of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital 70km from Cairo.
Investors from the Arab belt and West Africa garnered $100 billion (R1.6 trillion) with Mudolo bringing over $100bn through American and European investment to support the new capital’s solar subway and speed train infrastructure.
The “old Cairo” is the busiest city on the continent.
Mudolo is known as a business startup specialist in emerging markets with specialisation in project development, mining, agriculture, media, energy and petroleum, real estate, and education.
Head of the Central Agency for Organisation and Administration (Caoa) Saleh El-Sheikh said the government was adopting professional plans to move to the New Capital and has developed a guide to implement its goals for the transfer of various ministries and government agencies.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the new region was “the birth of a new state and republic”.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference at Cairo University, Sheikh said there are higher and executive committees that are managing the transfer to the new city.
The Egyptian government indicated that the first phase had been completed, covering an area of about 16 187 hectares. The first phase includes 10 residential neighbourhoods. Several giant projects in the New Capital have been completed, including the government district.
Sheikh said the financial and business district and the central business district – which has 20 towers, including the iconic tower, and the Sports City, are completed.
Mudolo’s The Top Property Group has invested $400 million into Grand City Development and has secured 14 600 hectares of land initially, a five-year design and construction window and a $10bn budget for phase 1 developments.
According to The Top Property Group, the city is being developed on a “greenfield site 100km outside Lusaka (the Zambian capital) in a plush temperament environment and will deliver world-class commercial, residential and lifestyle experiences that will attract talent from Zambia, Africa and the world”.
The city is expected to substantially complete its phase 1 works by 2028 and host its first workers and residents in 2030. The population is expected to reach more than 100 000 in the medium term and 500 000 in the long term.
The vision for Grand City is to bear a regional commercial and business hub for Zambia and the wider region, including those businesses with interests in Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana and South-Africa, among others.
Mudolo as well as former Nigerian president Jonathan Obasanjo and Ghanaian businessman Ibrahim Mahamba are to be honoured at the opening on Friday.