The Workers Compensation Fund Control Board – WCFCB has secured 6 hectares of land in Samfya district for the development of a hotel and an international convention Centre meant to boost the tourism sector in Luapula province.
The Board had on May 11, 2020 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Samfya district council for the purpose of constructing a multi-million international conventional Centre in Samfya on the shores of lake Bangweulu.
WCFCB Head of Communications and Customer Service Maybin Nkholomba has disclosed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an exclusive interview on May 14, 2020, that about K250,000 has already been paid for the parcel of land and that implementation phase will begin soon after a consultant engaged in estimating the total investment for the project is concluded.
He said currently the total investment needed for the project is not known as the board is looking forward to engaging a consultant for the purpose of developing details of the actual cost of the project.
Nkholomba further said that apart from the international conventional Centre, the project also composes of a hotel and a shopping mall meant to provide facilities to about 2,000 delegates that will be expected to attend the events, adding that Samfya will also be the gateway to the northern region tourism circuit.
He added that the board is expected to complete the project within the period of 16 months as the province is already set for other conventions for the year 2022 hence the need to prepare the facility within 2020-2021.
He said the investment will help the board remain in a strong financial position to be able to meet its current and future liabilities and manage funds received through the management structures while helping to administer compensation to workers who get injured in the line of duty.
“We have an investments policy were some of the surplus funds that we receive which are not used for the immediate compensation of workers is used to invest in appropriate ventures that are deemed viable, and one of the investment vehicles we identified is the investment in real estate infrastructure and Samya has been identified as a strategic location particularly for a hotel and convention Centre because of its natural environment and attractiveness,” He added.
In addition, Nkholomba said the board is also looking forward to partner with local and international operators for the hotel that will run and deliver work class hotel experience according to what is required and that identification process will begin once works on the ground get started.
The pace of implementation of this project has however been slow. As confirmed by WCFCB, the appointment of the consultant to come up with the total investment cost is still pending and this may take time. The northern tourism circuit has been a start and stop project with limited progress made.
The commercialization of Mbala airport is also yet to be finalized and airport infrastructure at Kasama and Mansa are now we’re near what obtains at Livingstone and Mfuwe, the other key tourism sites.
