Zanzibar authorities have announced the construction of the tallest skyscraper in sub-Saharan Africa, at an estimated cost of 3,000 billion Tanzanian shillings (1.1 billion euros), equivalent to more than 60% of the archipelago’s annual budget.
With 70 floors, the commercial tower christened Zanzibar Domino, will be built 15 kilometres from Stone Town, classified as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and will involve the creation of an artificial island and a marina for yachts and cruise ships.
The total cost of the work will be more than 3,000 billion Tanzanian shillings, a figure that exceeds 60 percent of the semi-autonomous archipelago’s budget for 2021-2022, the Agence France-Presse reported.
On Tuesday, Zanzibar’s Minister of State and Labour, Economy and Investment Mudrik Ramadhan Soraga told the media that the project will strengthen “the government’s efforts to attract more local and foreign investors to the islands”.
The tower will house flats, luxury hotels, a golf course and a chapel for weddings, according to a statement from xCassia, Tanzanian group AICL and Scottish firm Crowland Management, those involved in the project.
According to xCassia founder Jean-Paul Cassia, the building was sketched in Paris in 2009 and he had been dreaming of “building this project for over a decade”.
“It has all the ingredients of an icon that everyone will remember. It just needed a visionary investor and a suitable location to make it a reality,” he added.
Upon completion, this will be the second tallest building in Africa, behind the Iconic Tower in Egypt, which will be completed next year and will be 80 storeys high.
Currently, the tallest building on the continent is the 55-storey Leonardo, located in a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Famous for its turquoise waters and spice plantations, Zanzibar relies heavily on tourism, a sector hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic.
