Equity Holdings Venture Capital, an investment arm of Equity Group plans to build towers for the Kigali International Financial Centre (KIFC).
Rwanda’s cabinet approved the project which is seen as a strategic growth support initiative recently.
The CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Clare Akamanzi said the Kigali Financial Towers will be a real estate project that will be located in Nyarugenge District.
“They will build one of the buildings for the Kigali International Financial Centre (KIFC), and the idea is for it to be a state-of-the-art real estate project with a hotel that can accommodate people working at the Centre,” she told Rwanda’s New Times..
The Rwandese government set up Kigali Finance Limited to oversee the development of the financial centre whose aim is to build an attractive ecosystem for big banks, fund managers, insurance firms, and other multinationals to set up shop in Rwanda.
Akamanzi said Rwanda is keen on attracting big names like HSBC and Citibank hence the need to invest in big real estate projects like this.
She said the country is eyeing the status of a regional financial centre so it can key into the global financial system through partnerships.
The government is set to sign an agreement allowing for the development of the project, which is expected to be complete within three years from the signing date.
An official from EH Venture Capital in Nairobi the project was still at an early stage adding that the design will be done by early 2021. Details of the project’s size are still unknown.
Nairobi Financial International Financial Centre
Nairobi has long been in discussions to establish an international financial centre with moves dating back to 2015.
The Nairobi International Financial Centre Act was gazetted in August 2017 to serve as a legal framework for the establishment and regulation of the centre.
In November 2018, Kenya’s National Treasury invited bids for consultants to develop the framework for the establishment of Nairobi International Financial Centre, a regional financial hub.
The project forms part of the country’s Vision 2030 which envisages the NIFC as a catalyst for Kenya to gain a deeper foothold in sub-Saharan Africa’s growing financial services segment. However, implementation has been slow.
