IDBZ to roll out $75m hostel projects
THE Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) will next month start construction of state of the art hostels at state universities across the country under its $75 million funding project.
Last year Treasury approved the bank’s request to issue bonds of over $100 million in the next five years for it to undertake infrastructural projects.
IDBZ infrastructural projects director Mr Desmond Matete told Business Chronicle that projects were set to take off in June with the construction of hostels at Lupane State University (LSU), National University of Science and Technology (Nust) and Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE).
“We have finished all the preparatory work in terms of designs for the beneficiary universities starting with three, which are LSU, Nust and BUSE and then the second phase we will then target the University of Zimbabwe, Chinhoyi University of Technology as well as Great Zimbabwe University. Construction should start in June under the first phase,” he said.
“The whole programme will take us about $75 million doing state of the art student accommodation for a maximum of 1 600 students per hostel. We believe this intervention is very important and this intervention with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and Science and Technology Development will in future include other higher learning and tertiary institutions.”
The IDBZ boss said the financial institution whose mandate is infrastructure development was now preparing procuring processes before work on the projects takes off.
“We should have work starting in June or July and at the moment we are now preparing for our procuring processes so that we can get the contractors to be appointed so that they get on the ground and start work right away,” added Mr Matete.
Work on the projects is expected to take 24 months as they will be done simultaneously as different contractors on each of the projects will be roped in.
The hostel projects come at a time university students are facing accommodation challenges, which has seen unscrupulous landlords cashing in on the desperate students. — @lavuzigara1.