The US$72 million Long acres mall in Lusaka is earmarked to be open in July this year 2019, the Public Service Pension Fund – PSPF has revealed.
The shopping mall whose construction works started in 2017 will comprise of a hotel, office space and a shopping mall. Addressing the media in Lusaka on April 25th 2019 when he toured the site, PSPF Chief executive officer Patrick Bobo said the facility will be opened in phases.
As can be seen, the works at the hotel stand at 25%, office space, 99% while shopping mall is at 89%, hence expected to be fully operational by August 2020.
Bobo said once the facility is complete, it will help raise funds for payments of monthly pensions and create employment to the Zambian people as over 50 shops will be opened at the mall.
He disclosed that the institution has been facing challenges in payments of monthly pensions benefits to its members adding that through the project the institution will increase its financial sustainability.
And Zambia National Pension Association – ZANAPA Chairperson Cosmas Chileshe said the construction of the project will help sustain the livelihood of its members and increase the monthly payment for pensioners as the funds being given currently are not enough.
“This is a very important project and it is going to raise our monthly pensions so that we start receiving meaningful monthly pension because what we are getting monthly at the moment can not sustain our lives for 30 days,” he said.
Meanwhile, resident engineer Terrance Mukula said the construction currently has over 330 local employees between the age group of 18 to 50 among them women.
The project is believed to be one of the big Zambian owned malls of its size and was designed by a team of indigenous Zambians and supervised by indigenous Zambian consultants and will add to the beauty of the city as it has quite a number of iconic features like the Kaunda square, a water fall, a fountain and fly over bridge.
